●Christmas
In Japan, Christmas is not designated as a holiday and, while celebrating Christmas is a well-established custom in the same way as many other
countries, it has no religious meaning for most of Japanese. At this time of the year, streets are beautifully illuminated, many people set up a Christmas
tree and decorate their houses with special Christmas illumination. People celebrate Christmas by exchanging presents with their family members, friends, and their special partner. Children look forward to getting presents from Santa Clause every year. 

●How do Japanese spend the New Year holidays?
During the New Year holidays, most Japanese spend time at home, relaxing with their family. During the first three days of
the New Year, they visit shrines and temples to pray for happiness throughout the coming year, a custom which is called
hatsumoude. Today, many people visit a Buddhist temple on New Year’s Eve and then, visit a Shinto shrine the morning
after having heard the 108 purifying gongs of Jyoya-no-kane. Those Japanese people, who are not overtly religious, only
visit a Shinto shrine together with members of their families, therefore hatsumoude has become a family event.
It is surprising to learn that Meiji Shrine, located in Tokyo, is the most popular shrine attracting more than three million visitors
every year at the New Year. In the central region of Japan, Ise Shrine in Mie Prefecture and Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya,
likewise, attract many worshippers. 

●Osechi-ryori(Traditional New Year’s Dishes)
Osechi-ryori are specially prepared New Year’s dishes to be eaten at homes during the first three days of January. The dishes
are beautifully set into the individual compartments of layered lacquer boxes. Each osech-ryouri dishes has some auspicious
meanings, which reflects people’s wishes. Recently, Osechi-ryori boxes are sold at department stores, super markets, and even
through the Internet.For example; Kuromame, cooked black beans, are for good health (mame means “healthy” in old
Japanese)./ Kazunoko, herring roe, represents fertility because it contains lots of (fish) eggs./ Kurikinton, sweet chestnuts, are
golden in color and represents the wish to be rich./ Renkon, lotus root, represents the wish to “see the future” by looking
through the holes of the sliced lotus root. Ebi, shrimp, because their bodies are bent like an old person’s, they represent the
wish to live until one’s back becomes bent and one’s beard become long. 

●Sanpai, (Praying at a Temple or a Shrine)
Temples belong to Buddhism, which came from India, and are place where Buddha is thought to be enshrined, while shrines belong to
Shintoism and are places where Japanese deities are believed to be enshrined. Worshiping at a temple or a shrine is required different rituals.
At a temple, we just put our hands together. At a shrine, the first thing we do is to throw a coin(s) or a bill(s) into an offertory box followed by
pulling on a rope that rings a bell. Then, we pray in the manner of “two bows, two claps, one bow” which means that the worshipper must bow
deeply twice, put her/his hands together to show reverence, clap twice and, lastly, bow deeply one more time. Throwing a five yen coin is
supposedly a homophone for goen, which means being auspiciously linked by Fate (to someone or something). 

●Omikuji
Omikuji are slips of paper with people’s fortune written on them. People often buy omikuji at the Shinto shrines and, occasionally, at the Buddhist temples
which they visit during the New Year. The fortune papers foretell both “good fortune” and “bad fortune” for the coming year. In ancient times, such fortune
telling was conducted in order to divine an intention of the gods in national politics. 

Do you know how to draw an omikuji?
Firstly, one makes a wish and then shakes a wooden box containing the fortunes and, lastly, we pull the stick-shaped piece of paper out of the box. It is
said that, when “bad fortune” is drawn, it is best to tie the paper onto the branches of a nearby tree, but when “good fortune” is drawn, one usually takes it home. Why don’t you try it?