How We Spend New Year's Eve in Japan
What do you usually do on New Year's Eve? Does your family have something special to do for the New Year? Maybe you have a party at the bar or your friend's house, or you may spend time with your family. In Japan, the way of spending time on New Year's Eve is pretty different from the American way.
In the morning, we Japanese people clean the whole house. This process is called Ousouji in Japan. This doesn't mean that Japanese people clean the house only once a year. There is a special meaning for this cleaning. Its purpose is to welcome the New Year and to wish a better life than the former year. Cleaning the house, which is covered with annual dust, is a really important way to start a new year.
After finishing Ousouji, women start cooking Osechi. This is a traditional Japanese dish which is eaten a few days after the New Year. The dish is based on fish, beans, and egg. We eat Osechi because there is an old story saying one shouldn't use a cooking knife within three days from the New Year. This gives a break to the mother who cooks every day.
While women are cooking Osechi, men are hanging Shimenawa, which is a kind of decoration made from rice stems. It is hung on the front door. This custom comes from the farmer's wish to have a good harvest next year. Today, we wish for good fortune and a good year.
Evening time, after we finish preparing for New Year's, we normally watch a TV program called Singing Battle Between the Red and the White Team. It has been on the air for about 50 years and keeps over 50 percent of the audience's ratings every year. We think about this program as a part of a closing moment of the year.
While, or after watching singing battle, we eat Toshikoshi Soba, which means "New Year's Eve Noodle" in English. As you know, the noodle is long, so we wish longer life, including healthy body, by eating Toshikoshi Soba.
Finally, the last thing to do for New Year's Eve is to listen to Juya No Kane, which means "the watch-night bell" in English. This bell is like a countdown in America. But we ring it 108 times.
In a separate bowl cut the large scallions and half medium cabbage to small pieces. Peel and chop the potato, malanga, carrots, turnip, yam and the butter squash. Wash the vegetables and put in a separate boiling water. Cover it and cook it in high heat for an hour. After an hour reduce the heat and add scotch bonnet pepper. Once everything is fully cooked remove it from the pot. Used the cooking water to blend the squash into a puree. For the best flavor pour the vegetables, the squash and the cooking liquid into the pot that cooked the meat. After that add parsley, thyme, and broken spaghetti. If there’s no spaghetti, you can substitute with macaroni. Let them all cook for about an hour or until tender. Once done combine meat with soup and enjoy. You can eat this soup with bread has a side dish.
What are some of the native foods, and/or dishes that are special from their homeland?
An important fact is that rice is not used to accompany the hot plate; on the contrary, the hot plates are used to accompany the rice. The broths and soups, unlike the West, are served several times as other foods. Soup usually is accompanied with fruits. On the table there should be 3 glasses of different sizes, the largest is used for drinking water, the medium for rice wine, and the smallest for liquor. The basic cover consists of a bowl, a plate, a pair of chopsticks, cup of tea and a porcelain spoon. Chopsticks are used to eat and to take food, but after lunch, they never are left in the plate, but next to the plate. People should not drink until the host has not raised his glass. A person never serves in its own glass; instead he serves to someone else, while that person will return the kindness. People should not be surprised if someone is slurping the soup while making a loud noise; it is the right way to prove that the soup is
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