One of the biggest annual event in Japan is New Year's Eve. Today the number of people who take a trip by using this term holiday is increasing but still many spend a day at home with family. And traditional events that people are originally supposed to do is tight on this day.
The day starts with cleaning. This cleaning is not a just normal cleaning. People clean a whole house and preapare for the next coming year. So a family should stay home. They are so all fired up for this big cleaning that sometimes it takes more than a day. It is cleaned in every corner which the mother donesn't care usually; a window screen, a filter of air conditioner, a cartain, a ceiling of the bathroom, cover glasses of the lamp etc. Besides, it's thought to be better to wipe the floor with a damp towel which they usulally do with just a vacum-cleaner. So many used towels are useful as dustclothes that day.
After this cleaning a pleasure time is waiting. A family gather a living room and watch TV. For this, people buy stock up some snacks and enjoy this time as a reward for whole day hard-woking . The TV program is also special. There are some main popular programs for the night of New Year's Eve. Most of people watch "A singing contest" or "A combative sport." The former is sponsored by NHK, the Japanese Broadcasting, and a lot of popular singers compete with their songs as male and female team. Then the audience vote to male or female in the end of the show. For some reasons, male team has won in this few years . People really enjoy this program with looking back year with that year's hit songs.
The night of New Year's Eve is long. The next is "buckwheat noodles eaten on New Year's Eve." We eat hot noodles with simple soup stock. It was made to cook easliy in order to reduce a burden on mothers worked whole day with cleanig. Now it has become a tradition. In addition, before a new year has begun, many teens make decorated greeting e-mails to send friends and preapre to send at a time of new year.
The final event is tolling of temple bells. Some families visit the temple and toll the bell and some watch it on TV. The bells are tolled for 108 times. There are some origins of this number,108 but no definite answer. It is supposed to 107 is for that year and 1 is for next year. The sound of bell is totally different from American bell like the one church. It's much lower and heavy sound. Also at the temple they enjoy Japanese sweet hot alcoholic drink made from fermented rice a stall sell. This hot drink is perfect to the cold winter night.
In this way there are lots of process to do in New Year's Eve. Japanese consider the ending of thing imprtant like the words "All ends that ends well." As it could be seen, it's very important day for Japanese. So people spend a bussy day but also they enjoy the traditional day to prepare for the next coming year.
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