Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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 ...
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 ...
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.
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.
Japanese commonly use proverbs, often citing just the first part of common phrases for brevity. For example, one might say i no naka no kawazu (井の中の蛙, 'a frog in a well') to refer to the proverb i no naka no kawazu, taikai o shirazu (井の中の蛙、大海を知らず, 'a frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean').
In this case, the etiquette is not to send them a New Year's Greeting either. Summer cards are sent as well. Shochu-mimai (暑中見舞い) cards are sent from July to August 7 and zansho-mimai (残暑見舞い) cards are sent from August 8 until the end of August. These often contain a polite inquiry about the recipient's health.
Japanese calendar types have included a range of official and unofficial systems. At present, Japan uses the Gregorian calendar together with year designations stating the year of the reign of the current Emperor. [1] The written form starts with the year, then the month and finally the day, coinciding with the ISO 8601 standard.
Japanese festivals are traditional festive occasions often celebrated with dance and music in Japan.In Japan, festivals are called matsuri (祭り), and the origin of the word matsuri is related to the kami (神, Shinto deities); there are theories that the word matsuri is derived from matsu (待つ) meaning "to wait (for the kami to descend)", tatematsuru (献る) meaning "to make offerings ...