2011年01月01日
英語表現教室（27）お正月
英語表現教室（27）日本のお正月
We in Japan celebrate the New Year Day to welcome the coming of the new year, and
according to Lunar Calendar the coming of spring!
We in this Buddhist country don't officially celebrate Chirstmas Day, and New Year's Day and two more days following it are our holidays. So all the stores and offices are closed till January 3rd.
During these holidays, it is our custom to eat our traditional cuisine called"Osechi-Ryori", which consists of food stuff symblizing this festive occasion, health, happiness and longevity.
For instance;
Sea-bream,fish called Tai in Japanese, sounds like Medetai, symbolizes Festivity:
Seaweed, KONBU, sounds like "Yorokobu, means pleasure and happiness.
Kazunoko, herring-roe, eggs of the fish herring,symbolize Fecundity, reproducing of prospering posterity.
Various kinds of beans symbolize your working hard because in Japanese working diligently sounds ” mameni-hataraku”= working hard and diligently.Renkon.rhizome of lotus, has lots of holes inside, and signifies that you can see your future through their holes.
During these three days we eat Ozo-ni, rice cake soup, which is made up of miso-soup, some vegetable,and rice cakes.
Traditionally duirng this season, boys played by flying kites(=Takoage) in the fields or on rice-paddies, or on river anks, and girls played by battledore and shuttlecock(=Hanetsuki).
Some Japanese women wear traditinal Kimono clothes, which were brought from Tan(618-906) Dynasty China, and used to be court ladies' clothes of China and now non-existent in China, and are only preserved in Japan.
Before Japan adopted the Solar Calendar in Meiji Era(=about 100 years ago), New Year's Day used to be celebrated in February according to Luna Calendar.
To be continued:
by Phyllis Watanabe
20110101
Posted by Phyllis at
16:54
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