How to visit Shrines

New Year's Eve and New Year's days are the most important holidays for Japanese people. We have many unique customs during that time. How long do you think New Year's days last for Japanese? It’s until about midlle of Jan. By that time, we greet “happy new year” to other people.

　By the way, I’d like to talk about “ How to visit Shrines“, because we have an important customs called “Hatsumoude”. It means going to shrines to pray during New Year's days. I go to shrines almost every year. Not only that, when I happen to find a shrine, I visit it. Many Japanese must be the same. It comes from our customs rather than the faith of Shinto, but these customs are based on the fear and respect to the something higher, of course. Even though, a lot of Japanese don’t know complete way of worship, this is good opportunity for me to learn Shrine’s etiquettes.

First of all, You see a big gate in front of Shrine. It’s called “Torii”. The Torii is a gateway to enter a divine place. So you should bow once before going under this gate. Then, we should walk on the side of the approach towards the praying area. This is one of the gestures of  respect . Actually, I didn’t know that. As you arrive in front of a place of worship, you need to wash your hands and rinse your mouth at “Temizuya” . This is for cleansing yourself. And then, finally, we can stand at pray spot.

1, Take one step forward. Drop some coins in the offering box.
2, Ring the bell
3, Bow twice, clap your hands twice, and then put your hands together and pray.
4, Bow once before you leave.

 This is how to pray at the Shrine. When you visit the temple, there are other etiquettes there. After this worship, you can still enjoy visiting shrine. For example, I always draw a fortune slip called “Omikuji”. There are many types of Omikuji. "Excellent luck, Great luck, Some luck, A little luck, Bad luck, Extremely Bad luck". If you drew Bad luck or Extremely bad luck? No problem. You can tie it to the branch of the tree in the Shrine so that you leave Bad luck there.