I am very surprised that the Mongolian the New Year has not come yet. You can celebrate the New Year in Mongolia,also in Japan

By the way, do you know 1fuji2taka3nasubi? Fuji means Mt. Fuji, taka means hawk and nasubi means eggplant. It is said that to dream of them is an event of good omen. On January 1, to dream of Mt. Fuji is the best. On January 2 and 3, to dream of taka and nasubi is the best. The strong reason is that Ieyasu Tokugawa loves these.

Moreover, this story continues 4, 5 and 6! I don’t know 4shiougi5gotobako6rokuzatou.
Shiougi means fan to dance. Gotobako means tabako that geisha girl smoke. Rokuzatou means bald headed that sing to his or her own instrument accompaniment. It is said that people helped to get more chance.
I’ve never dreamed these, so I want to dream sometime.

Kadomatsu is New year’s decorative pine branches. This pine branches are stood and decorated at the door of the house to invite God in the New Year. Tako-age is flying kite. Kite is a toy consisting of a light frame with thin material stretched over it, flown in the wind at the end of a long string. Koma is a sppining top. It is a conical, spherical, or pear-shaped toy that with a quick or vigorous twist may be set to spin. Kagami-biraki is cutting New Year’s round rice cakes with hands or wooden hammer. Cut round rice cakes are eaten as zouni, shiruko, etc. Otoshidama is a gift at the beginning of the year to celebrate New Year. Now it is often used as a custom which gives children money.

Osechi-ryori, as Daichi says, are special dishes in a tiered lacquer box(jubako), for example, grilled or boiled dishes and vinegared dishes. They keep as they are for a while and reduce housekeeping. Osechi contents are respectively charged with wishes; for example, bream (tai) is “auspicious” (medetai) , herring roe (kazunoko) means “the prosperity for descendants” and sea tangle roll (kobumaki) is “please” (yorokobu). I like datemaki (a rolled omelet mixed with fish paste) the best. I love it.

Kadomatsu are decorations made with bamboo wreathed by assembled pine branches and sprays of plum trees. (In Japan, pine, bamboo, and plum trees are taken as good luck.) They are placed in front of the house gate.

Simekazari decorates doors and serves as a charm against evil spirits. It is made with a sacred straw rope and good luck charms like bitter oranges, ferns and lobster. When the new year period ends, shimekazari and kadomatsu are taken to Shinto shrines and burned.

Kagami-mochi is a set of two round, flat rice cakes, a small one on a large one. They are displayed on a stand and on top of kagami-mochi, bitter orange or hoshigaki is placed. They are displayed throughout the new year period and then taken down on January 11 and eaten. This is called kagami-biraki because the rice cake cracks and then it is split open by hand or with a hammer. The rice cakes are cooked as zenzai or zouni etc.

Let me introduce a Japanese New Year’s custom to you. In Japan, there are quite a few of these customs; for example, osechi ryouri, kagamimochi, hatsumode, motituki, and shimenawa. Do you know these customs?

Especially, I examined osechi ryori. The tradition started in the Heian period. Osechi are easily recognizable by their special boxes called jubako, which resemble bento boxes. Like bento boxes, jubako are often kept stacked before and after use.

Osechi have black soybeans, herring roe, tazukuri dried sardines cooked in soy sauce, kombu, sweet roasted chestnuts, red sea-bream, Japanese bitter orange, taro, kamaboko, kurikinton, mashed sweet potato with chestnut, rolled eggs and so on.

The dishes that make up osechi each have a special meaning celebrating the New Year. Let me give some examples. Black soybeans mean that everyone will keep their good health in the new year. Herring roe means “child�: it symbolizes a wish to be gifted with children in the new year. Taro have almost the same meaning because taro have many children. Kombu is associated with the Japanese word yorokobu, meaning “joy,� and red sea-bream, tai is associated with the Japanese word medetai, meaning an auspicious event. kamaboko, which is slices of red and white fish cakes alternated in rows or arranged in a pattern. The color and shape are reminiscent of the rising sun, and have a celebratory, festive meaning.

I don’t know how each food got to have each meaning, but I think it is interesting.

Takuya-kun has just posted a short piece on ozouni, the soup with rice cake that the Japanese have on New Year’s Day. Too quiet? Maybe the Japanese just don’t think of the new year as an occasion for matsuri-style extravagance and noise?

A few years ago I attended one of those new year ceremonies at a Buddhist temple where the big bell is struck 108 times and everyone — well, 108 people, anyway — gets to strike the bell once. Apparently they do a a ceremony like this at the Asian Art Museum
in San Francisco.