What New Year Brings

For non-Japanese, the Japanese New Year is a combination of surprises. During the last part of December, the stores offer a combination of Christmas items and pre-ordering of New Year’s decorations and delicacies. Late on Christmas Eve, suddenly Santa Claus, decorated trees, and related music disappear, and samples of elegant boxes of special foods, door decorations, and one of the twelve traditional animals appear everywhere. Some Tokyoites head to Ginza and others head to Ueno’s Ameyoko market stalls. Residents in other parts of the country have their own go-to shopping areas to purchase the necessary ingredients for New Year gatherings of families and friends.

In 2024 we celebrate the dragon, one of the twelve animals in the Oriental zodiac. People born in a Year of the Dragon are supposed to have certain personality characteristics, but I confess that I don’t believe in such ideas.

As a translator, I have found an older tradition—no longer widely maintained—to be very frustrating to calculate accurately. Until a century or so ago, the changing of the year affected how a person’s age was described. If a child was born in December, he or she was said to be “one year old.” Then on the following New Year’s Day, he or she became “two years old,” not “two months old”! Fortunately, that tradition has disappeared, and we use the actual birth date as the start for counting a child’s age. Another rather odd method is occasionally used instead. How can a child be “zero-sai”? What is wrong with “one month old” etc.?

Setting aside these minor issues, I wish you all the best in the Year of the Dragon!
 
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