New Year’s is a major holiday in Japan and has been for centuries. Shogatsu, as the Japanese New Year’s is known, retains many traditions from former times which are still alive today and a fixture in modern New Year’s happenings. These traditions can be small, intimate ceremonies practiced with the family or in private. For three days the Japanese celebrate the New Year and enjoy traditional New Year’s foods, osechi ryori, aka osechi, which have been prepared or purchased before the festivities.
Some of the foods eaten include nimono (simmered vegetables), kazunoko (herring roe), kurikinton (mashed chestnuts and sweet potatoes), datemaki (sweetened omelet roll), kamaboko (fish cake) and konnyaku (gelatinous yam cake). But the one dish which is famous as New Year’s food is ozoni.... Continue Reading...