Japanese New Year

Welcoming the year

As midnight nears on New Year's Eve, Buddhist temples across Japan ring large bells 108 times in a rite called Joya no Kane. The strikes represent the release of worldly desires and the sins of the past year. In Tokyo, crowds gather around the Watched Night bell for this ritual. The first days of January also honour the arrival of the Seven Lucky Gods, who are believed to travel across the sky in their Treasure Ship, the Takarabune. Households welcome the dawn with quiet reflection, smiling to begin the year with laughter, and looking forward to auspicious first dreams and sunrise views.

Holiday dining and mochi

Celebrations centre on shared food made to last through the opening days. Families prepare or buy osechi-ryori, an assortment of sweet, sour, and dried foods created originally to keep without cold storage while shops closed. On New Year's Eve, people eat toshikoshi soba noodles, followed on New Year's Day by ozoni, a savoury soup containing mochi. Making mochi involves steaming sticky rice and pounding it with heavy wooden mallets in a large mortar. Two rounded rice cakes topped with a bitter orange make kagami mochi, an auspicious household display. Later, on the seventh day, light seven-herb rice porridge is served.

Greetings and playful customs

The turn of the year is a busy period for mail delivery. People send printed or hand-lettered postcards, called nengajo, bearing seasonal greetings and the corresponding Chinese zodiac animal for the coming cycle. Relatives also give monetary gifts, known as otoshidama, to children inside decorative envelopes. Families and children take part in classic holiday games such as kite flying, top spinning, the card game karuta, and fukuwarai, a game where a blindfolded player tries to place paper facial features onto a blank outline. Traditional poetry, including haiku, often highlights these festive first experiences of the year.

Music and closing rituals

Concert halls across Japan stage performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, a musical tradition that expanded following the mid-twentieth century. At home, many people tune in on New Year's Eve to watch Kohaku Uta Gassen, a televised singing competition between red and white musical teams. Festivities extend to Little New Year, or Koshogatsu, around the middle of January. Marked by prayers for good agricultural yields, this period includes eating red adzuki bean rice porridge and safely burning holiday decorations in communal bonfires at shrines and temples.

How Japanese New Year is kept

Celebrations begin on New Year's Eve with buckwheat noodles, televised music shows, and temple bell ringing at midnight. On New Year's Day, families gather to eat osechi dishes and ozoni soup, exchange greetings, and open delivered postcards. Adults give money in decorated envelopes to children, and households display kagami mochi. During the first days, people play traditional games, write poetry, and relax. The festive season continues with seven-herb porridge on the seventh day and concludes around mid-January with Little New Year, when decorations are burned in ceremonial fires.

When and where

Since 1873, the official festival begins on 1 January, following the Gregorian calendar. In earlier centuries, it followed lunisolar calendars and began in early spring. Celebrations start on New Year's Eve, 31 December, and run through early January, concluding with Little New Year around 15 January.

The festival is celebrated throughout Japan in homes, Buddhist temples, and community spaces. Famous events take place in major centres such as Tokyo, though regional variations in traditional foods and customs appear across different prefectures.

What Japanese New Year means

The festival represents spiritual purification, family continuity, and a fresh start. Ringing bells 108 times frees individuals from earthly desires and past transgressions. Auspicious symbols appear everywhere: layered rice cakes with citrus fruit evoke generational longevity, the Treasure Ship carries good fortune, and starting the first morning with smiles and shared wishes invites prosperity and peace for the year ahead.

Days Japanese New Year is marked

Japanese New Year dates: 2026, 2027, 2028

Questions people ask about Japanese New Year

See also

HalloweenAn annual observance on 31 October marking the eve of All Saints' Day, rooted in Christian tradition and Celtic heritageHanamiA Japanese spring custom of gathering under blooming cherry trees to eat, drink, and celebrate the fleeting beauty of thTanabataA Japanese summer star festival of written wishes hung on leafy bamboo.JiaoziCrescent Chinese dumplings filled with meat or vegetables, eaten for fortune and feasts

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle
• The Treasure ship | Utagawa HiroshigeV&A, Article
• The Treasure ship | Utagawa HiroshigeV&A, Article

• Japanese New Year on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-04.