Are you enjoying the holiday season?
For Japanese housewives, winter holiday season is NOT holidays!!
That is most busy days for us.
Because a set of New Year events are the one of most important seasonal events in Japan.
We clean a house(we clean everything in a house. For example, clean bathroom, wipe windows, wipe every dishes in a cabinet, and so on), make New Year greeting card called Nengajo, rice cake, and Osechi(foods for New Year holidays) till New Year’s Day.
Osechi on New Year’s Day 2017. My mother made all of this by herself. I respect her as a professional Japanese housewife.
Nengajo is New Year greeting card in Japan.
My mother and I will make rice cake on 28th this year.
We should not make rice cake for New Year’s Day on 29th or 31st December.
In Japanese we pronounce 9 as Ku(we also pronounce Kyu) and Ku is a homonym of “苦” means suffering and considered as the number of bud luck.
We make rice cake for offering to Toshigami(god or spirit of harvest), and the rice cake is called Kagamimochi.
So we’d like to select a “good” day to make Kagamimochi wishing for good fortune.
On New Year’s Day we have Japanese sake called Otoso in a sakazuki which is a cup in photo.
We don’t offer kagamimochi and don’t display Shimenawa( decoration for New Year’s Day) on 31st because we think “ichiya-kazari”(decoration for just one night) as bad luck.
A set of New Year events is hold to welcome Toshigami to a house. So we prepare for it sincerely as a host.
Thank you for reading this to the end!
Japanese Teabreak – JAPANESE HOUSEWIFE
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