New Year's Custom in Japan (Part 1)

Kagami-mochi

Flower at the entrance hall

New year's preparation starts from cleaning the house. Then, we decorate in our house with Kagami-mochi (rice cake) and flower arrangement.  We oftern include Senryo (red fruit plant) and Matsu (pine tree) in the flower arrangement.

Then, the biggest work is cooking Osechi which is new year's meal. For us, three days of new year are holidays. And so, we try not to cook at home for three days. Especially, it is meanigful for housewives, that they can have holidays only this period in a year. However... it is a big work!!
Although it is common to buy the Osechi from the department store or restaurant, my mom and I make Osechi as much as possible because it is a traditional cooking of Japanese cuisine, we think.
Here are some photos of preparation of Osechi.

Kuri-kinton

Namasu

Tazukuri

First one is Kuri-kinton which is chestnut and paste of sweet potato. This means financial good luck because the pronunciation of "Kin" is also for gold and money in Japanese. Namasu is vinegared white radish and carrots. As red and white is celebration color in Japan, this color contrast of Namasu means good luck in general. Tazukuri is small fishes with sweet sauce. It is also called Gomame. This is for wishing a rich harvest of rice.  Actually, sardins were good fertilizer of rice field.

New year's table with Osechi, Ozouni and Otoso

Oseshi foods are put into a box called Oju which is a red lacquered box. Oju consists of three boxes. We call Ichi-no-Ju, Ni-no-Ju and San-no-Ju.  There is a rule of putting foods into these three boxes but my family do not think too much about it. So I put them together without following strict rule. (please refer wikipedia or somewhere else about this rule). New year's meal is not only Osechi but also we have Ozouni or simply Zouni. Zouni is a soup with Mochi (rice cake). This soup and ingredients vary with location and family. Each family has each tradition. For my family, it is a soup of Dashi (soup of fish and seaweed) with chicken, carrots, Shiitake mashrooms and spinach. Yes, my mom put boiled egg for making it colorful! Then, the first thing we put into mouth on new year's day is Otoso.  Otoso is actually Japanese Sake (alcohol) with Toso-san. Toso-san is medical spices.This is for wishing good health.

 

As you see, there are many meanigs of new year's meal. I will tell you another custom for new year's day in a next blog...

For now,

Happy New Year!!

to you.