Time to Start Getting Cleaned Up!

Start of New Year’s Preparations Woo Hoo!!

December 13th is the start of New Year’s preparations throughout Japan. On this day bills and loans are to be paid from the previous year and cleaning begins. The custom began in the 1640s when common people copied the cleaning of Tokyo castle. This cleaning is the same as Spring Cleaning in the West, only it occurs in December. This is also the time to collect the ends of pine tree branches to make New Year’s displays. Though this last habit is less popular than in the past. Japanese people clean their homes and pay their debts to make way for good luck to come to them the next year.

Why Start of New Year’s Preparations in Mid-December?

You could say that the Japanese people just like to get things off to a “Clean Start”! Punning aside… The New Year’s holiday in Japan is long, boisterous, and very social. Families often gather together at this time. Naturally people want to show off their beautiful clean homes to others and at the end of the festivities there is so much less to clean up when it is all done. To do this well they start preparations for New Year’s roughly two and a half weeks early because with work, end of year parties, taking care of OSeibo (end of year gift giving), writing hagaki (New Year’s greeting cards), etc., it just takes a while. From personal experience I can say that it takes a lot longer to do the job well than one afternoon. A two week’s lead time is about right.

References

In English

http://www.ippodo-tea.co.jp/mm/20191219en.html

https://www.picathingswelove.com/blog/2016/12/29/oshogatsu

In Japanese

https://wa-gokoro.jp/event/annual-events/404/

https://jpnculture.net/shogatsukotohajime/

Photo thanks to WaNoSuteki.jp.

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