New Years

There are two main traditions marking the beginning of the new year in Hiroshima. Hatsumōde is the first visit of the year to a shrine and takes place throughout Japan. Later in the month is the Tondo Festival, which is just in Hiroshima. Hatsumōde The first visit of the year to a shrine or temple is an important Japanese tradition, usually taking place in the first three days of the new year. Around 80% of Japanese people follow this tradition. They offer gratitude for the past year and pray for safety and peace in the year ahead. Although hatsumōde is most common at shrines, it is also possible to visit a Buddhist temple. After making ritual devotions before the altar, visitors draw folded strips of paper called omikuji from a wooden box – it’s a bit like a lottery. The traditional way of doing this is to shake an oblong box to make a stick of bamboo with an inscribed number fall out. You then pick a fortune strip with that number from a stack in a drawer. The omikuji covers quite a range of possibilities for your fortune. [bscolumns class=”one_half”] 大吉, dai-kichi: great blessing 中吉, chuu-kichi: middle blessing 小吉,…