The "First xxx"...

Happy New Year!! I wish you all a happy and exciting year 2007 :-)

I'd been thinking about what to write for today's entry for a while - there are a couple of personal things I have in mind but since they aren't exactly cheerful news I think I'd be a typical writer today writing about New Year's Holidays in Japan, of what it's like.

New Year's Day and the holidays before and after January 1st is I think the most significant event/holidays in Japan culturally and religiously. There are dozens of traditions that are practiced during these holidays but I'm not going to go about explaining all of them here.
Just to give an idea of a typical way of spending New Year's holidays...
Many families travel back to the parents' hometowns to greet grandpas grandmas and relatives, clean up the house in the last couple of days of December, eat year-crossing soba noodles, go see the first sunrise of the year, go out to pay their first visits of the year to the shrine or temple, eat osechi (New Year's dishes) together, greet their neighbors, maybe go out for some shopping... but basically just relax at home.

What I want to write about is the "first xxx" (I mean, not kisses but ex-ex-ex ye know) like I have in the title. Since January 1st is the beginning of the brand new year, whatever you do on January 1st counts as the "first xxx" of the year and I'm not sure why but there is a tendency in Japanese culture and society of making a big deal out of this "first xxx" ("hatsu xxx").

Hatsuhinode is the first sunrise of the year and is important I assume from religious reasons. Shinto(ism) the Japanese religion praises the nature and because the most significant of gods of nature is the sun, seeing the first sunrise of the year is said to bring happiness. A lot of people go out to the coast or climb up the winter mountains to see the first sunrise.

The first dream you see is hatsuyume and is believed to sort of tell one's fortune of the year. Just fyi the luckiest dreams are said to be #1-Mt.Fuji (tallest mt in Japan) #2-hawk (taka<takai=high) and #3-eggplant (nasubi<nasu=to achieve) and it goes on.

Hatsumoude, another "hatsu" thing that many people are involved in is the first visit of the year to the shrine and/or temple and this too kinds of plays a role in determining the fortune of the year. The number of total visitors to shrines/temples this year went up to almost 100million (out of the national population 126mil) in the first 3 days.
I got a daikichi (luckiest luck) for my hatsumikuji, the first fortune-telling (sheet of paper) so that brings me great hope for my new year... and I'm also a toshionna (zodiac of the year) so that's even better ;-)

What else... hatsuuri is the first bargain... this is a festival and a battle at the same time.
I can't think of more right now, but basically you can put "hatsu" in front of anything you do for the first time that year. I guess Japanese are a kind of people who want to make the littlest events festivals and celebrate them, lol.

Okie, today's update on Japan Mode: CharmyNurseM Chapter 7

P.S. Question to all the readers out there: does anybody want to talk about their experiences in Japan or just about their towns/cities/countries on Japan Mode?