Tradition

Japan is a country rich with tradition and New Year is no exception. Temple bells ring 108 times on New Year's Eve to symbolise the 108 human sins of Buddhist belief. The Japanese believe that the ringing of bells can rid them of the sins of the previous year (sounds good to me!) There is also a custom of sending New Year Cards in the same way we in the West send Christmas cards. Children are given money in fancy envelopes, mandarin oranges are given to spread happiness and sticky rice cakes are eaten to excess.

Hatsumode , the year's first visit to a temple or shrine, is hugely important. Hastumode festivities are held at practically every temple or shrine across Japan, popular ones have a very festive atmosphere which includes every kind of food and drink stalls and they are PACKED with crowds of people for the three day holiday! It can take an hour of queuing just to reach the main hall in order to pray and everyone purchases lucky charms for a fortunate new year and disposes of their lucky charms of the past year. Shops, houses and apartment blocks are decorated with lovely traditional decorations like the one on the picture, called kadomatsu.

After his popularity in yesterday's blip, Ziggy is in the picture simply for the purpose of scale - I don't want this celebrity to go to his head, he's got enough airs & graces as it is! Regarding scale he would like it to be known that he's actually the size of a large GSD... I'll leave you to make your own judgement on that ;)

All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness... the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.
Dalai Lama