Issue 06 – Ōmisoka

“Ōmisoka“- New Year’s Eve in Japanese.

“Ōmisoka” is the second-most important day in Japanese Tradition because is the final day of the old year and the eve of New Year’s Day, which is the most important day of the year.

Japanese often gather for spending new year’s eve time with family to eat a bowl of “toshikoshi-soba” around 11:00 pm on “Ōmisoka” night. “Toshikoshi-soba” is long noodles with meaning of “crossing over from one year to the next,” which is the meaning of “toshi-koshi” in Japanese.

At the stroke of midnight of “Ōmisoka”, the entire nation listens to the tolling of the great bells or gongs at Buddhist temples which is called “joya-no-kane”. The “joya-no-kane” consists of 108 solemn bells. It is according to Buddhism, human-beings has 108 sins and by hearing the bells 108 times, human-beings can be relieved of all of sins.

On “Ōmisoka” night, it is popular to watch “kohaku-uta-gassen” which is an annual music show on NHK (Nippon Hosou Kyokai) TV. “Kohaku” means red and white in English. It is the ”Red and White Song Battle” which is the program divides the most popular music artists of the year into competing teams of red and white. Red is for women, white is for men and Japanese love to watch it to spend “Ōmisoka” night.

Wish your happy new year’s eve and wonderful 2011