Article by Carolyn Osorio ¦ Design by Yuka Kinjo ¦ Photos by Jamie Acton
N
ew Year’s Eve makes most Americans think of sparklers, champagne, and the countdown to midnight. New Year’s Day is usually a time to relax and think about your resolutions for the year ahead. However, New Year’s celebrations here in Okinawa are not limited to just one night and the following day — they happen over two months, encompassing an incredible variety of traditions from cleaning the house to brewing special sake to visiting shrines to watching the first sunrise of the New Year. The sheer amount of New Year’s items, events, traditions, and ceremonies can be hard to keep track of, so we talked with Kaori Kinjo, the Inter-Cultural Coordinator at Airman & Family Readiness, to bring you this small guide to celebrating the New Year in Okinawa. The first thing to know is that Okinawans observe three different New Year’s celebrations. The first of the season is the calendar New Year, with the New Year typically being rung in via the Joya-no-Kane, or the ringing of temple bells (108 times to be exact) at midnight. On New Year’s Day, it is traditional to watch the first sunrise, or “hatsuhinode,” to pray to the Sun god for good fortune. Many Okinawans head North to Hedo Point or to the Eastern part of the island, to beaches in places like Hamahiga Island, in order to be among the first to see the sunrise. Be warned, Kaori-san explained that many people begin lining up just after midnight in order to have a good spot in these more popular places. After sunrise, many Okinawans head right to the shrine to pray for their family’s good health! This first shrine visit of the New Year is called “hatsumōde,” and these visits can technically happen anytime through 3 January, when most Okinawans have the day off from work and school. The second New Year’s celebration Okinawans observe is Lunar New Year, or “kyu shogatsu,” which will be celebrated 1-3 February this year. Lunar New Year is an especially big deal in areas where fisherman (called “uminchu”) have lived in Okinawa. Kaori-san explained that the Itoman area is a particularly lively community during Lunar New Year, where tall festive flags are often displayed off the sides of boats as a way to pray for a good, and safe, fishing season. The third New Year’s celebration that Okinawans observe is called “juuruku nichi,” a kind of Remembrance Day or Ancestor’s New Year’s. This happens on the 16th Day of the New Lunar Year, meaning it’s on 16 February this year. This celebration involves extended relatives meeting at their family tomb with offerings and food in order to eat and celebrate the New Year with their ancestors. However, Kaori-san made sure to emphasize that this tradition is mostly popular in the northern part of mainland Okinawa, and within the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands. She explained that her family, being from the Okuma area, celebrates this tradition, “My father is from Ogimi village so that’s why we do ‘juuruku nichi’ every year.” While the central and southern areas of the island don’t usually celebrate “juuruku nichi,” homes with a “butsudan,” or a Buddhist altar, will traditionally leave offerings like food and fruits on the altar this day.
