JAPANESE CULTURE AND TRADITIONS

Japanese New Year — Gods, Symbolic Foods, and TV Extravaganzas

Old and new ways to ring in the New Year

New Year, from Precious Children’s Games of the Five Festivals, by Kiyonaga Torii, late 1700’s. (Public Domain)

After first arriving in Japan in 1987, I quickly learned to stock up for the first three days of the New Year since all stores would be shuttered while their owners and employees spent time with their families.