That’s Happy New Year, for those of you without my astonishing grasp of the Japanese language. New Year is Japan’s most important holiday and virtually all businesses are closed for the first three days of January. Most people spend time with family and visit a shrine to offer prayers for the coming year. In the next three days, 3 million people will visit Tokyo’s most prominent shrine, Meiji Jingumae. Mark and I are heading out soon to see if we can get anywhere near it. Leading up to the holiday, the Japanese clean house, finish outstanding business, and generally embrace the prospect of a fresh start.
The New Year in Japan is associated with poetry in traditional styles, such as tanka. For more than 1,000 years, there has been an Imperial ceremony in Japan called Utakai Shiki (Ceremony for Chanting Poetry). Shortly after a new year begins, the Emperor and members of the Imperial Family, all trained in the art of writing poetry from an early age, read aloud the best poems they wrote during the preceding year. As the Empress of my own home, I decided to try my hand at tanka. In Japanese, these poems are often written in one straight line, but in English they are usually divided into five lines, with syllable counts in this order: 5-7-5-7-7. I’ve no doubt butchered a truly venerable tradition, but here’s my poem nonetheless (with apologies as needed):
TokyoMy attachment grows
Like a new crocus in snow
Tentative until
Experience makes a home
And melts the unfamiliar
It’s appropriate for me to share my first tanka poem on New Year’s Day because when a new year starts many “firsts” are celebrated in Japan, including the first exchange of letters, first calligraphy, first laughter, and first dream. Your first dream of the year, called hatsuyume, is thought to signify what you can expect from the next 365 days. So that you can recognize your good fortune if you see it, the three symbols considered most lucky to dream of are (in order) Mount Fuji, hawks, and eggplants.
Traditionally, the Japanese send New Year postcards to friends and family. These are held by the post office and all delivered on January 1st. Can you imagine the U.S. Postal Service pulling that off with Christmas cards? Many of the postcards feature images of the animal that the traditional Chinese calendar ties to the coming year. 2009 is the year of the cow or ox (for calendar purposes, the two seem to be used interchangeably).
Mark was born in 1961, which was also a year of the ox. For him, that’s a propitious sign for 2009. Here’s hoping that the coming year is a healthy and happy one for the rest of us, too!
The New Year in Japan is associated with poetry in traditional styles, such as tanka. For more than 1,000 years, there has been an Imperial ceremony in Japan called Utakai Shiki (Ceremony for Chanting Poetry). Shortly after a new year begins, the Emperor and members of the Imperial Family, all trained in the art of writing poetry from an early age, read aloud the best poems they wrote during the preceding year. As the Empress of my own home, I decided to try my hand at tanka. In Japanese, these poems are often written in one straight line, but in English they are usually divided into five lines, with syllable counts in this order: 5-7-5-7-7. I’ve no doubt butchered a truly venerable tradition, but here’s my poem nonetheless (with apologies as needed):
TokyoMy attachment grows
Like a new crocus in snow
Tentative until
Experience makes a home
And melts the unfamiliar
It’s appropriate for me to share my first tanka poem on New Year’s Day because when a new year starts many “firsts” are celebrated in Japan, including the first exchange of letters, first calligraphy, first laughter, and first dream. Your first dream of the year, called hatsuyume, is thought to signify what you can expect from the next 365 days. So that you can recognize your good fortune if you see it, the three symbols considered most lucky to dream of are (in order) Mount Fuji, hawks, and eggplants.
Traditionally, the Japanese send New Year postcards to friends and family. These are held by the post office and all delivered on January 1st. Can you imagine the U.S. Postal Service pulling that off with Christmas cards? Many of the postcards feature images of the animal that the traditional Chinese calendar ties to the coming year. 2009 is the year of the cow or ox (for calendar purposes, the two seem to be used interchangeably).
Mark was born in 1961, which was also a year of the ox. For him, that’s a propitious sign for 2009. Here’s hoping that the coming year is a healthy and happy one for the rest of us, too!
1 comment:
Happy New Year to you!
May you dream of eggplants, my
favourite veggie,
especially ratatouille
or with a tomato sauce.
That's my best effort. It's a good thing I'm only Empress of a 400 square-foot apartment!
love,
The Accidental Parisian
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