akemashite-omedetou, happy new year
happy 2015 everyone! today is january 1st or gan-tan. being the first day of the new year, it's traditional to go visit your local shrine (hatsumoude), say a little prayer for the new year, and get yourself an omikuji which is a small strip of paper with your luck on a scale of super lucky, lucky, sorta lucky, maybe lucky, and unlucky. it also has advice about whether it's a good idea to travel, how business will go, etc, etc. while omikuji aren't just for the new year, most everyone who goes to hatsumoude gets one.
this was the scene at my local shrine, the sumiyoshi shrine, this afternoon. everyone's lining up to offer their prayers. when my turn came, two miko (shrine maidens) were standing behind the offering boxes (where you throw in some coins or, if you're feeling really generous, some bills). the rule of thumb is first, ring the large bells near the top of the shrine, then bow twice, clap twice, and pray. while you're praying, the shrine maidens swish really large paper shide which look like paper strips of lightning, over your head. once you're done praying, you bow once more and you're done. after that, i went to pick my omikuji. they're all scattered inside a box and you pick out one at random. so here's what i got:
chuu-kichi! sorta lucky! which is a vast improvement over last year's maybe lucky, hehe. the rest of the fortune was...just as you can imagine for being sorta lucky, heh, but it's not bad per se. and so with that, my new year's excursion came to an end. tomorrow i'll be headed to the cafe to pick up the nengajou or new year's cards that should have arrived. which means i'll be writing more on those tomorrow!
have a great 2015 everyone!!
0 件のコメント:
コメントを投稿