FestivalEast Asia · Japan
Japanese New Year
Next date
Friday, 1 January 2027
- Tithi at sunrise
- Waning Ninthuntil 13:10
- Nakshatra
- Chitrauntil 17:29
- Lunar month
- MargshirshPosh in the purnimanta reckoning
- Sunrise
- 07:19Sunset 18:06
In short
The first three days of January, kept with visits and packed food boxes.
The story
Shogatsu, the first three days of January, and the quietest large festival on this list: the country closes, families are at home, and the year is begun deliberately rather than loudly. Japan moved to the Gregorian calendar in 1873 and moved this with it, which is why it has a fixed date when the rest of East Asia's new year does not.
Retold from the Gujarati household practice
Why it matters
Shogatsu. The year's obligations are closed before it - cards written, debts cleared, the house cleaned - and the temple bells are struck a hundred and eight times at midnight, once for each earthly desire. Osechi is prepared in advance so that nobody cooks for three days, and hatsumode is the year's first shrine visit.
What people do
Osechi - a lacquered box of small dishes, each meaning something - is prepared beforehand so that nobody has to cook. Toshikoshi soba is eaten on the last night, temple bells are rung a hundred and eight times, and hatsumode is the first shrine visit of the year. Children are given otoshidama.
Retold from the Gujarati household practice
Told differently elsewhere
Japan moved to 1 January in 1873 and did not keep the lunar date, which is why its new year sits apart from every other East Asian one. Okinawa and some rural districts still keep the old lunar new year alongside it.
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