Japanese New Year

Oshogatsu/New Year お正月 – Descriptions of traditions and events surrounding the Japanese New Year with links to online resources.

Japanese New Year - New Year in Japan : Both of these web sites provide brief explanations about Japanese New Year.

Christmas and New Year - Japanese Teaching Ideas: This pages offers a good selection of crafts ideas, games, songs, worksheets and links to other Websites.

正月飾り- おしょうがつ "dos and don'ts".

New Year's in Japan - an article on festive traditions by Billy Hammond.

１月の行事と解説 - Origins and meaning of おしょうがつ symbols.

全国注連縄門松大会  - photos of kadomatsu and shimenawa, typical Japanese New Year decorations,  from different regions of Japan.

門松(造花） -   Images of New Year decoration called かどまつ.

Kagami mochi (鏡餅) - Brief explanation of the meaning and traditions of this New Year decoration. On the Wikipedia Web site.

Mochi (餅) - Brief Wikipedia article on this Japanese rice cake traditionally made in a ceremony called mochitsuki.

Kagami mochi

Japanese New Year: Oobleck and Mochi and New Year Mochi Making in Japan - YouTube video.

Osechi dish - YouTube video.

Midi file of a children's song sung in anticipation of the coming New Year: "おしょうがつ". The translation of this song can be found here.

お正月 | ヤマハ発動機株式会社 - Paper crafts of かどまつ and くまで

"ねんがじょうのかきかた - How to write New Year cards in Japanese" (MS Word document). This was created by Shunko Muroya, Japanese Advisor, Alberta Education.

Buddhist temples throughout Japan toll a bell 108 times on New Year's Eve. These three YouTube videos (Japanese Temple's Bell, Happy New Year and New Year 2007 in Kyoto) illustrate this tradition. For an explanation in Japanese of this tradition: 除夜の鐘 .

New Year's at Suzume Temple 雀神社で初詣で - this is a YouTube video.

Osechi - Article on Japanese New Year’s Day traditional foods with recipes.

Osechi - An explanation of the symbolism associated with some of the dishes making up the Osechi-ryōri .