Ōmisoka

---

title: "Ōmisoka" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["winter-festivals-in-japan", "december-observances", "buddhist-holidays", "buddhist-festivals-in-japan"] description: "Annual Japanese festival" topic_path: "geography/japan" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ōmisoka" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Annual Japanese festival ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox holiday"]

Field	Value
holiday_name	Ōmisoka
type	shinto
image	File:大晦日の夜4 - panoramio.jpg
imagesize	250px
caption	Shinto shrine on ōmisoka
official_name	大晦日
nickname	New Year's Eve
observedby	Japan
longtype	Cultural
significance	Preparing for the new year
date	December 31
scheduling	same day each year
duration	1 day
frequency	Annual
celebrations	Kōhaku Uta Gassen
relatedto	Japanese New Year
New Year's Eve
::

|holiday_name = Ōmisoka |type = shinto |image = File:大晦日の夜4 - panoramio.jpg |imagesize = 250px |caption = Shinto shrine on ōmisoka |official_name = 大晦日 |nickname = New Year's Eve |observedby = Japan |longtype = Cultural |significance = Preparing for the new year |date = December 31 |scheduling = same day each year |duration = 1 day |frequency = Annual |celebrations = Kōhaku Uta Gassen |observances = |relatedto = Japanese New Year New Year's Eve

Ōmisoka or ōtsugomori is a Japanese traditional celebration on the last day of the year. Traditionally, it was held on the final day of the 12th lunar month. With Japan's switch to using the Gregorian calendar at the beginning of the Meiji era, it is now used on New Year's Eve to celebrate the new year.

Origins

Etymology

The last day of each month of the Japanese lunisolar calendar was historically named misoka. Originally, "miso" was written as 三十, indicating the 30th day, though misoka sometimes fell on the 29th due to the varying lengths of the lunar month. The last day in the 12th lunar month is called ōmisoka—with the 大 indicating it is the final last day of the month for that year—or the "great thirtieth day". As part of the Meiji Restoration, Japan switched to the Gregorian calendar in 1873, and ōmisoka was set as December 31, or New Year's Eve. The day is also known by the archaic pronunciation of ōtsugomori. This is a shortened version of tsukigomori, meaning "last day of the month".

Activities

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Ritual_bonfire_in_a_shrine_OTAKIAGE.jpg" caption="御焚上}}, a ritual bonfire in a shrine"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Oji_Kitsune_no_Gyoretsu4.JPG" caption="Kitsune no Gyoretsu (Ōji 2010)"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Oji_Kitsune_no_Gyoretsu5.JPG" caption="Kitsune no Gyoretsu (Ōji 2010)"] ::

Traditionally, important activities for the concluding year and day were completed in order to start the new year fresh. Some of these include house cleaning, repaying debts, purification (such as driving out evil spirits and bad luck), and bathing so the final hours of the year could be spent relaxing. Recently, families and friends often gather for parties, including the viewing of the over four-hour Kōhaku Uta Gassen on NHK, or more recently to watch large mixed martial arts cards. This custom has its roots in the ancient Japanese culture surrounding toshigamisama or toshitokusama, which revolved around the practice of showing reverence toward the gods of the current and upcoming years.

About an hour before the New Year, people often gather together for one last time in the old year to have a bowl of toshikoshi soba or toshikoshi udon together—a tradition based on people's association of eating the long noodles with "crossing over from one year to the next", which is the meaning of toshi-koshi. While the noodles are often eaten plain, or with chopped scallions, in some localities people top them with tempura. Traditionally, families make osechi on the last few days of the year. The food is then consumed during the first several days of the new year in order to "[welcome] the 'deity of the year' to each household" and "[wish] for happiness throughout the year".

At midnight, many visit a shrine or temple for Hatsumōde, or the first shrine/temple visit of the year. Throughout Japan, Shinto shrines prepare amazake to pass out to crowds that gather as midnight approaches. Most Buddhist temples have a large bonshō (Buddhist bell) that is struck once for each of the 108 earthly temptations believed to cause human suffering. The bell ringing tradition is known as joya no kane (除夜の鐘).

When seeing someone for the last time before the new year, it is traditional to say "Yoi o-toshi wo". The traditional first greeting after the beginning of the New Year is "Akemashite omedetō.

This celebration is the equivalent of New Year's Eve in the Western world, and coincides with Saint Sylvester's Day celebrated by some Western Christian churches.

References

References

1. (August 5, 2014). "Introduction to Japanese Culture". [[Tuttle Publishing]].
2. (August 22, 2004). "New Times in Modern Japan". [[Princeton University Press]].
3. "大晦日(おおみそか)と正月 Omisoka & Shogatsu". Nihongo Instructor Club.
4. (May 23, 1958). "年中行事事典". Tōkyōdō Shuppan.
5. (July 8, 2015). "Washoku 和 食: Traditional Dietary Cultures of the Japanese". [[Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Japan).
6. (August 1, 2000). "Japan for Kids: The Ultimate Guide for Parents and Their Children". [[Kodansha USA.

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