Japanese Tradition

About 2 more weeks to 2008!!

Do you have traditional customs to celebrate New Year in your country?
We have a lot of traditional customs to celebrate New Year in Japan.

I will talk about Kadomatsu which is displayed in front of house, shrine, and other buildings during the New Year holidays.
Kadomatsu is New Year's decorative pine branches.

Generally, Kadomatsu is made with 3 bamboos surrounded with pine tree needles, and tie them with straw ropes. But people add some flowers or ornaments nowadays.
Kadomatsu is a sign to invite the god of the year.
And when the god is invited, the god will live in it.

We start displaying Kadomatsu around December 10th.
But we have to be carefull NOT to display it on December 29th or 31st. Do you know why? The reasons are interesting:

We pronounce 29 as "nijuku" in Japanese. We have a word "二重苦" and we also pronounce it "nijuku". "二重苦" means "suffer twice". So, people say that 29 is inauspicious number. That's why we shouldn't display Kadomatsu which invites the god on December 29th. If we display it on December 29th, we may suffer from something.

If we display Kadomatsu on December 31st, it is very rude to the god. Because December 31st is the day before New Year. Displaying Kadomatsu on December 31st means we didn't have enough time to prepare to invite the god. We should treat the god very well. That's why we shouldn't display Kadomatsu on December 31st.

So, we have to display Kadomatsu until December 28th at the latest.
In case we can't display it until December 28th, we should display it on December 30th. We have to make sure not to display it on December 29th or 31st.

However, we can hardly find Kadomatsu nowadays. People don't want to take time or spend money for it. Some people still display it, but others don't display it any more. We have been losing our tradition in present day life in Japan. But I'm sure you will find real Kadomatsu at shrines during New Year holiday in Japan.

If you have a chance to visit Japan during New Year holiday, please look for this Japanese tradition!

By Kurumi