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Ōmisoka (大晦日) or ōtsugomori (大晦) is a Japanese traditional celebration on the last day of the year. Traditionally, it was held on the final day of the 12th lunar month. With Japan's switch to using the Gregorian calendar at the beginning of the Meiji era, it is now used on New Year's Eve to celebrate the new year.
A bōnenkai (忘年会, literally "forget the year gathering") is a Japanese drinking party that takes place at the end of the year and is generally held among groups of co-workers or friends. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The purpose of the party, as its name implies, is to forget the woes and troubles of the past year, and hopefully look to the new year ...
There is a traditional Japanese custom of exchanging end-of-year greetings, and preparing for the New Year by the end of December with a sentiment of hoping for a "auspicious start" to the year. This concept resonated well with this sentiment and quickly spread nationwide.
' midnight bell ' is a Japanese Buddhist event held annually on New Year's Eve. The bell, or bonshō, is struck at midnight of December 31, as a part of the Ōmisoka celebrations. Most temples ring the bell 108 times. It is celebrated mainly in Japan, but also in South Korea and at Japanese Buddhist temples around the world.
A lazy greeting is regarded with the type of disdain that would accompany a limp handshake in parts of the West. The most common greetings are ohayō gozaimasu (おはようございます) or "good morning", used until about 11:00 a.m. but may be used at any time of day.
Nengajō, new year cards in Japan. The end of December and the beginning of January are the busiest for Japanese post offices. The Japanese have a custom of sending New Year's Day postcards (年賀状, nengajō) to their friends and relatives, similar to the Western custom of sending Christmas cards. The original purpose was to give faraway ...
The ages most often considered unlucky in Japan are 25, 42, and 61 for men, and 19, 33, and 37 for women, though there is much regional variation. Note that yakudoshi are calculated by traditional age reckoning in Japan, according to which children are considered to be one year old at birth, and add to their age every New Year's Day.
The paddles are decorated with various images, sometimes executed in relief, of women in kimono, kabuki actors, and so on. [2] Japanese people think playing hanetsuki is a way to drive away evil spirits because the movement of the hagoita is similar to the harau action (a Japanese expression meaning “to drive away”). [ 1 ]