新年が近づいてきました。

新年には様々な祝い方があります。日本では各家庭で毎年伝統的なお祝いをします。元旦は家族が集う特別な日でもあります。家を離れていた家族が家族とともに時間を過ごす、そんなひとときです。

日本の年末休暇は12月28日から始まります。29日から30日には大掃除を行います。31日には年越しそばを食べます。年越しそばは普通の日本のそばですが、31日に食べることに意味があるのです。それは江戸時代からの伝統で、これからも長く良い人生が送れるようにとの願いを込めて食べるからです。また、年越しそばは31日の夜12時までに食べないと願いが消されてしまうとも言われています。

真夜中になると、日本中のお寺が除夜の鐘を108回突き始めます。108回突くことで108つの煩悩が消されるとも言われています。最後の鐘が鳴り終わるのは夜明け頃になります。更に、29日夜12時から神社におまえりに行く人もいます。新年にはお雑煮を食べます。お雑煮はまた大変伝統的な食べ物です。お餅を入れてお正月だけのために作ります。正月は各地域の各家庭で祝う習慣の所為かこのお雑煮は様々な種類があります：

多くの場合魚の粉末出汁と醤油で味付けした、すまし汁ベースです。この種類のお雑煮は主に関東圏で多く食べられています。そして、みそベースのお雑煮は関西圏で食されています。

コツは、関東圏ではお持ちを長方形に切ることです。関西圏では餅は丸い形の丸餅が一般的です。また、他の地域では里芋をや豆腐を餅の変わりに使用する地域もあります。このタイプのお雑煮は一部半島や山間など、お米が取れない地域でよく食べられるものです。

具には鶏肉や魚、蝦そしてネギ、ほうれん草小松菜などの野菜を加えたり、かまぼこやなると、にんじんを彩りに添えたり、三つ葉やゆずの皮を飾って香りを出すお雑煮もあります。またその地域ごとの特産品を加えたりします。そして最後に七味唐辛子を加えてできあがりです。- ウィキペディアより

人々は世界中に多くの希望や願いを抱えています。新年に何を願いますか？108の願いかそれとも108の苦しみか･･･全てはあなた次第！

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The New Year is drawing near.

Millions of people has thousands of different ways for celebrating the arrival of a New Year. Here in Japan New Year's day is celebrated in a very traditional way every year within each family. The New Year is also a special moment of gathering families together at home. Even a son away from his family returns to his parents and siblings at this time of the year, and a daughter without contact for long time also returns to parents and families.

Japanese year-end holiday season starts from 28th December every year. From the 29th to 30th people clean their own entire house for welcoming the New Year. On 31st people have buckwheat noodle called Toshi-Koshi Soba for Dinner. Toshi-Koshi Soba is an ordinal Japanese wheat noodle, but it is very meaningful to eat it on 31st, because it is also a traditional event dating back to the Edo period. By eating the long string shape of the noodles people hope to live a longer and better life. It is also said that Toshi Koshi Soba has to be eaten at around mid-night or all these hopes would be lost.

At midnight, all temples in Japan start to toll a bell 108 times killing 108 poisons in Buddhism, which lasts until the next morning. Some people go out to the shrine to pray for a better life in the New Year from midnight, and come home on New Year's Day then eat Ozoni. Ozoni is also a very traditional meal for the New Year's Day. Ozoni is a kind of Japanese soup, but it is especially cooked with Mochi-rice cakes for New Year's Day, and it has many varieties. It is used to celebrate the New Year in each family every region, therefore, Ozoni represents a regional tradition itself:

In most cases it is either a clear soup (sumashi-jiru) flavoured with dashi (stock usually made from flakes of dried bonito) and soy sauce, generally preferred in eastern parts of the country, or a miso soup generally preferred in the western parts.
As a rule of thumb, mochi is cut into a rectangle in eastern Japan, whereas in western Japan the mochi is usually round. (In some areas sato-imo (taro) or tofu is used instead of mochi. This type of Ozoni is found on some islands or some mountain areas where rice is not grown to a large extent.)

'Common additions to the soup include meat (usually chicken, fish or meatballs), leafy vegetables (such as komatsuna or spinach), mitsuba (a Japanese herb similar to parsley), naruto or other types of kamaboko and carrot flakes for colouring, and flakes of yuzu citrus peel for fragrance. Regional specialties are often added. A sprinkle of seven-spice chili flakes (shichimi) is sometimes added at the table.'*

There are thousands of hopes that rest with millions of people. What are you hoping for the New Year? 108 hopes or 108 sufferings? It is all up to you!          

 
*Sourced from Wikipedia - December 2007

 
Photo by Eiko Sakata (Ozoni)

 

            

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