Japanese Tradition 2

Have you ever seen these gorgeous rice cakes?
This is one of Japanese traditional costoms to celebrate New Year.
This is round rice cakes offered to the god at New Year's time.
We call it Kagami-mochi.

We display Kagami-mochi during New Year holidays to appreciate that we had a safety year last year, and we are having a brand-new year. We offer Kagami-mochi to the god during New Year, and we eat it after New Year. We call it Kagami-Biraki. We usually have Kagami-Biraki on January 11th.
People say that when we eat Kagami-mochi on Kagami-Biraki day, we recieve power from the god.
Because eating Kagami-mochi after offering to the god means the god gives us the thankful Kagami-mochi.

We decorate Kagami-mochi as like the picture. And each decoration has meaning:

Sanpou is a table to put Kagami-mochi.
When we give something to precious person, we should put it on a table. We put Kagami-mochi on Sanpou because the god is precious for us. This is the polite way to offer Kagami-mochi to the god.

Urajiro is a plant called fern. We believe that fern is an auspicious plant because the leaves of fern grow one after another. It reminds us prosperity of our business.

Shihoubeni is a sheet of square shaped paper to put Kagami-mochi. The paper is white colour, and the edge is red colour. White paper stands for our land. And We believe red colour avoids evils. So, Shihoubeni means saving our land from disasters.

Gohei is strings of square shaped white paper and red paper. By connecting them and making them longer, it reminds us of prospering business or something. And the red parts of the Gohei also mean avoiding evils.

Daidai is a sour orange. Daidai grow on trees and they hardly fall from the trees. So, Daidai stands for prosperity of our families.

Kagami-mochi is a holy rice cakes that mediate between the god and us. If you go to Japan during New Year holidays, you will find Kagami-mochi everywhere! We display them with our appreciations and wishes.

Isn't it interesting? They are not just rice cakes. The rice cakes are saving us!

By Kurumi