Annual Events

Question 1

Why is the New Year important for the Japanese?

Answer 1

• express gratitude to the kami gods (year god)

Question 2

What does the year god do?

Answer 2

• determines a persons aging for the year
• harvest and happiness depends on the blessings of the year god

Question 3

New Year

What is the Kadomatsu?

Answer 3

• gate pines
• The landmark for the Year god to visit the
  house
• Made of pine tree branches and bamboo.

Question 4

What is the Shimekazari?

Answer 4

• a holy straw rope decoration
• Over the door of the house to welcome the
  Year god
• To expel evil spirits to purify the house

Question 5

New Year

What is a Kagamimochi?

Answer 5

• two round piled up rice cakes
• Offering to the Year god.
• Belief ⇒ the Year god stays in kagamimochi
  during the New Year.
• Need to eat it to receive the blessing
• Displayed with Sorbus japonica and Japanese bitter
  orange.

Question 6

What is a setsubun?

Answer 6

bean throwing

Question 7

When is setsubun held?

Answer 7

February 3rd (the day before
spring according to the lunar
calendar).

Question 8

Why did setsubun start and why do they throw beans?

Answer 8

• Introduced from China in the Nara period.
• Spread to the commoners in the Edo period.
• People believed that evils came at the
  changing of seasons to bring disasters and
  make people sick

Question 9

What do Japanese people do when setsubun?

Answer 9

• Throw soybeans and shout “Demons
  out! Good luck in! (Oni wa soto! Fuku
  wa uchi!)” to expel bad luck and evil
  demons.
• Held at homes, temples and shrines

Question 10

When is the Doll festival? ( hina natsuri)

Answer 10

March 3

Question 11

What do Japanese people display at the Doll festival? (hina natsuri)

Answer 11

Display dolls dressed in traditional
court apparel.

Question 12

What do they eat and why? (Doll Festival)

Answer 12

Clam Soup: represents the pair
Sweet White Sake: Expel Evil Luck
Chirashizushi:
Shrimp: longevity
Lotus roots: can see the future well
Thin sliced egg: wealth

Question 13

When is Childrens Day Held?

Answer 13

May 5

Question 14

What do Japanese people display on Childrens Day?

Answer 14

• Helmets and amor, to wish to
  protect the boy’s body.
• Mushaningyo, doll dressed as
  samurai warriors
• Carp-shaped cloth streamers attached
  to poles, koinobori.
• Koinobori: comes from an ancient
  Chinese story that a carp which swam
  up strong rapids became a dragon. The
  parents wished for the boy to become
  mighty.

Question 15

What do they eat and why? (childrens day)

Answer 15

• Kashiwamochi, rice cakes with red
  bean paste inside surrounded by a leaf
  of kashiwa, oak
• Chimaki, steamed rice with bamboo
  grass, comes from China

Question 16

When is the Star Festival?

Answer 16

July 7

Question 18

What do Japanese people do at the Star Festival?

Answer 18

Set up bamboo branches and decorate them with strips of paper on which their wishes are written

Question 19

What is Obon?

Answer 19

• A Buddhist annual event to
  welcome and console the souls
  of one’s ancestors.
• It is believed that the sprit of
  the ancestors come back to visit
  the house during obon.

Question 20

What do they display at Obon?

Answer 20

• lanterns
• Make a horse with a cucumber
• cow with eggplant.
• (The horse is for their ancestors to come quickly, and
  the cow is for them to go back
  slowly.

Question 21

What do Japanese people do at Obon?

Answer 21

• family members get together
• On the first day (13th), they make the
  welcoming fires to greet the ancestors’
  souls from the spirit world.
• On the last day(15th), they make the
  seeing-off fires as the ancestor’s souls
  return to the spirit world.
• Visit the family grave.
• bon dance
• fireworks

Question 22

What do Japanese people do on New Year’s Eve?

Answer 22

Visit shrines and temples
Strike bells 108 times at
the night of New Year’s
Eve

Question 23

What do Japanese people eat on New Year’s Eve and why?

Answer 23

Soba noodle, buckwheat noodle.
A symbol of a long life because they
are long and thin.