New Year's Newness
Every year on December 31st at eleven-thirty, temple gongs begin to echo eerily, ominously through the quietness. Each gong sounds like when a piano note is held with your foot on the pedal. This is ushering in a new year, Oriental style. It is believed that man has 108 sins that have to be forgiven before he enters it. So 108 gongs sound.
New Year's time provides the longest vacation and is really the focal point of the year. It's a time of family reunions, causing trains and buses to be booked well in advance and to be very crowded. Tokyo-ites, especially, throng back to their country relatives.
Young people love to receive "otoshi-dama" (New Year's coins) at the time. This is simply a gift of money put into a colorful envelope especially bought for the occasion. Lots of doting relatives means a good number of fat money envelopes.
Before this, however, is much preparation. Homes and yards are thoroughly cleaned. Even the man of the house pitches in and helps wash windows and clean up. Special foods are prepared and enough to last for many days. From 15 to 30 different kinds of food are served on New Year's Day. These foods usually don't require refrigeration and are laid out artistically on lacquered trays that fit one upon another in a neat stack. Last year a direct-mail advertisement featured the special New Year's foods--enough for 4--at from $30 to $120 a set. The lady of the house must be sure to shop thoroughly because most stores are closed for at least 4 days into the new year.
As much as possible debts are paid. In olden days, some who couldn't comply with that committed suicide.
My first year in Tokyo we were away from home for a few days and arrived back on December 31st. I was surprised to be greeted by a small line-up outside my door. At that time we paid our bills by the month, and the milkman, the meat man, the vegetable man and others wanted their pay before December ended. Great emphasis is placed on beginning the new year with a clean slate.
Often we would love to begin again. "If I could live over my life that is past," the songwriter wrote. Sad to say, just flipping the calendar or making New Year's resolutions doesn't change us. But the Bible has a solution: "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, all things are become new."
New Year's time provides the longest vacation and is really the focal point of the year. It's a time of family reunions, causing trains and buses to be booked well in advance and to be very crowded. Tokyo-ites, especially, throng back to their country relatives.
Young people love to receive "otoshi-dama" (New Year's coins) at the time. This is simply a gift of money put into a colorful envelope especially bought for the occasion. Lots of doting relatives means a good number of fat money envelopes.
Before this, however, is much preparation. Homes and yards are thoroughly cleaned. Even the man of the house pitches in and helps wash windows and clean up. Special foods are prepared and enough to last for many days. From 15 to 30 different kinds of food are served on New Year's Day. These foods usually don't require refrigeration and are laid out artistically on lacquered trays that fit one upon another in a neat stack. Last year a direct-mail advertisement featured the special New Year's foods--enough for 4--at from $30 to $120 a set. The lady of the house must be sure to shop thoroughly because most stores are closed for at least 4 days into the new year.
As much as possible debts are paid. In olden days, some who couldn't comply with that committed suicide.
My first year in Tokyo we were away from home for a few days and arrived back on December 31st. I was surprised to be greeted by a small line-up outside my door. At that time we paid our bills by the month, and the milkman, the meat man, the vegetable man and others wanted their pay before December ended. Great emphasis is placed on beginning the new year with a clean slate.
Often we would love to begin again. "If I could live over my life that is past," the songwriter wrote. Sad to say, just flipping the calendar or making New Year's resolutions doesn't change us. But the Bible has a solution: "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, all things are become new."
posted by Lila @ 12:35 PM
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