Ask most people about their New Year’s Eve plans, and they’ll rattle off a short list of bars or parties to attend where they’ll count down the last few seconds of 2016 and clink champagne flutes as the ball drops in Times Square. For the Japanese, the celebration entails something entirely different. People gather at home with their families during oshougatsu to enjoy traditional Japanese New Year’s dishes and watch NHK’s “Kōhaku Uta Gassen,” the annual red-and-white-themed song contest on television.
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In Japan, oshougatsu is the most important time of year. Preparations begin well in advance and many businesses close shop from December 29 through January 3 in observance of the holiday. Growing up in Los Angeles, my Japanese mother would assign us a long, dreaded list of chores for what felt like a mad dash to clean the house from top to bottom before the New Year. Once our household duties were completed, we accompanied her to the Japanese markets to shop for the ingredients needed to make special holiday foods: a glutinous rice cake soup called ozōni and the more elaborate osechi ryōri.
In accordance with custom, little to no cooking occurs during oshougatsu. Osechi ryōri is prepared ahead of time and is intended to last one’s family into the first week of the new year. Women sometimes spend days preparing each of the separate components of the meal: kuromame (sweet black beans for health); tazukuri (candied dried sardines for an abundant harvest); kazunoko (herring roe for fertility); and kuri kinton (sweet potatoes with chestnuts for wealth), among other items displayed in beautiful lacquered boxes or on ceramic platters for the New Year’s Day feast. Each item bears symbolic meaning. The more varied the assortment, the more likely one is to have an auspicious year. With more Japanese women entering the workforce than ever before, more families are ordering osechi ryōri sets from department stores, supermarkets and restaurants.