Where did December go? (A quick New Years overview)
January 4, 2008 by sumimasenwakarimasen
Its seems that only a few days ago I was sitting in the cold staff room writing exams, recording transcripts and relaxing for a day or two before my batch of exams were piled on to my desk to mark. Now it is January and the superficial meaningless Christmas decorations in Japan have been pulled down while the traditional symbolic New Years decorations are slowly dissapearing and the recovery from the festive season is finally complete.
Japanese New Years is more important than Christmas and many traditions and customs are acted out in the space of a few cold days. In Japan the holidays start on the 28th and work continues again on the 4th. The Japanese try to finish any tasks that are left incomplete before the New Year starts and clean their houses thouroughly to welcome in the New Year to a well and ordered house. Soba noodles are eaten as a sign of health and longevity and the first visit to the shrine ‘Hatsumode’ entails hordes of people and women in kimonos bustling along to the local shrine which is lined with food stalls filling the air with sweet smells of toffee apples, savoury smells of meat and local foods as well as mochi (rice cake) which is traditionally eaten around New Years. Children are given money on the 1st of the year and dutiful wives prepare ‘osechi ryori’: a traditional new Years meal which is normally in a box. The food which is eaten for three days is symbolic and has many good omens.
On the 2nd January, Gemma and I were fortunate (or unfortunate depending on your tastes) to try one of these meals. Invited to one of my teacher’s houses for a taste of Japanese culture a black tray was placed infront of us containing soybeans, small fish, fish eggs, chestnut, lotus root and fish cake. 
Since the tradition of eating certain foods has become so engrained my teacher was unable to tell us what each food symbolised but what she could recall was that the small fish symbolised good harvest and the fish eggs fertility (one I hope I am not blessed with this year).
