Ōmisoka
Next: December 31, 2026
Noodles, bells and a calm goodbye.
The story
Where it comes from
Ōmisoka is Japan's New Year's Eve, 31 December. Misoka means 'thirtieth', the old name for the last day of a month, so the last day of the year became ō-misoka, the great last day. It falls in the New Year holidays, which generally run from 29 December to 3 January, when schools, government offices and many businesses close. The Japan National Tourism Organization notes that in a country known for its technology, this is when many people return to the traditional.
How it's celebrated
Families eat toshikoshi soba, 'year-crossing' buckwheat noodles: their length is a wish for long life, and because they break easily they cut off the year's hardships. Many watch NHK's Kōhaku Uta Gassen, a red-versus-white song contest broadcast every year since 1951. Near midnight, Buddhist temples ring their great bells 108 times in joya no kane, and at some temples visitors may take a turn.
Did you know
- Most temples strike the bell 107 times in the old year and save the last stroke for the first moment of the new one.
- Eating soba on Ōmisoka has been common since about the middle of the 18th century.
- One explanation of the custom is that goldsmiths used buckwheat dough to gather up stray gold dust, so the noodles are thought to help good fortune stick.
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