Japan’s New Year’s Eve: Ōmisoka

For many people and cultures, commemorating a year’s end is as significant as an annual event can get. In Japan, this end-of-the-year celebration is dubbed as Ōmisoka.

Ōmisoka, literally meaning “last great day,” is known as Japan’s New Year’s Eve, celebrated during the last day of the year, December 31. This is a day where friends and families get together to reminisce about the past year and welcome in the new one.

For many Japanese people, this holiday isn’t just about being festive. Based on traditions from Shinto and Buddhism, two of Japan’s major religions, Ōmisoka is considered a spiritual event symbolizing the preparation for a new beginning.

As with many cultural events, Ōmisoka is celebrated through all kinds of traditions. One of the main traditions is called osouji, also known as “the great cleaning.” According to patternz.jp, “cleaning out impurity and uncleanness is the core value of Shinto.”

Ōmisoka takes great influence from these native beliefs, focusing on purification and throwing away all the dirt and clutter that accumulated in the previous year. Maintaining cleanliness became a custom and transformed into the practice of osouji, where families would clean their entire homes in order to purify them, welcoming the upcoming year fresh and tidy.

While the house is tidied up, the tables are filled with food to complete celebrations like these. Bowls of buckwheat noodles, called toshikoshi soba, warm people’s hands as they gather to eat by around 11 p.m. This tradition of eating soba at New Year’s Eve stems from the belief that these long noodles symbolize a long and healthy life that crosses over from one year to the next, as toshikoshi literally translates to “year-crossing.”

Web-japan.org also adds watching special TV programs like Kohaku Uta Gassen as a more modern tradition that Japanese families enjoy during the time of Ōmisoka. Near midnight is when the temple bells start to ring; marking the start of Joya no Kane.

Joya no Kane is considered one of the biggest and most important ceremonies practiced in Buddhism. It’s when temples all over the country begin “ringing out the old year,” sounding their bells 108 times. Yabai.com says that this specific counting is reflected on “the Buddhist belief that humans have 108 earthly desires, called Bonnou, that keep them from reaching enlightenment. To help in removing every last Bonnou, each temple monotonously strikes their bell 108 times.” People would wait for the reverberations of each bell toll to die down and then strike once again. While the temples are striking, Shinto shrines would also be passing out amazake to the crowds, a sweet, low-alcohol drink made from fermented rice, as they listen to the calming tolls of bells that refresh the mind.

Ōmisoka provides a time of recollection and reset that allows people to momentarily pause, letting them look back on the past year. Folks would spend its last moments leaving the bad things while also renewing themselves as a way of entering the New Year with their loved ones, which gives them an opportunity to look forward to another year once more.

If you plan on spending the last few days of the year in Japan, you may also find that their more solemn traditions bring a pleasant experience different from the extravagant fireworks display, as the deep ringing of their bells carry you over to the New Year instead.