Ritual: shigoto hajimé

The Japanese art of regenerative living

Happy new year! I am beginning my work year today. And thus, today marks my shigoto hajimé.

After the holiday week that began with a thorough cleaning of the home, to make room for prosperous energy to flow through in the new year, my mother and I prepped New Year’s Day osechi dishes that symbolize good fortune and placed them into the multi-layered lacquered box that shows its face only once a year. While many Japanese people now order their luxurious osechi from fabulous department stores and restaurants, I prefer our hobbled together amateur-level cooking of the dishes that we enjoy eating most. So while our osechi is unsophisticated, it’s something that I look forward to every year. We eat warm soba on the Eve, to ensure our health and longevity, and frankly to warm our hands and souls after preparing osechi for a couple days in the cold to avoid unnecessarily weathered food. Nearly everything is prepared in advance so that on New Year’s Day, the focus is on welcoming the New Year’s gods.

Just before dawn, I run to the neighborhood shrine to beat the rush and express my gratitude to all of the energies that allow us to be here. And then make my way to the spot with the best view in the area, to welcome the first rising sun. Then I run back home to dive into osechi and warm ozoni soup. Our ozoni is Kyoto-style, which means white miso soup with round mochi.

While New Years is the most important holiday in Japan, and it is not uncommon to take a week off, for most, shigoto hajimé begins on the 4th, 5th, or 6th. But given that my birthday falls at the beginning of the month, I have taken to the ritual of taking an extra long winter holiday. This is what I was doing, away from the computer for the past couple weeks.

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.:中:.村::桃:.子