Japanese Cultural Trivia of the Day:

So yesterday was Hina Matsuri in Japan.

Hina Matsuri, is referred to as both "Doll Festival" or "Girl's Day" in English, and no, not because of any sexist business about girls liking dolls. The festival is held to pray/hope for the healthy and happy upbringing of female children, and the dolls represent the Japanese Imperial Court, in traditional Heian dress.

The dolls are believed to be able to contain bad spirits, which leads us to today's bit of trivia.

Today many younger Japanese families don't keep up with this practice. About half of the female students in my classes report that their households don't set up the dolls. A handful find the dolls themselves creepy and weird.

But the families who do still have a set of dolls that they display, usually keep one set year round, putting them out for the festival, and taking them down soon after.

The original tradition, still practiced widely, is called "hina-nagashi," in which straw dolls were placed on a boat and set afloat on a river, carrying the bad spirits away with them. In modern cases where putting a bunch of straw and wood in a publicly or commercially used river is not a good idea, some shrines send the dolls out to sea, collect them, bring them back in, and burn them.

I suspect that the families who re-use the often expensive dolls instead of burning them or sending them away, hope that a year in the closet between use will give them time to digest the "troubles" that they are supposed to absorb. But the knowledge that you're NOT supposed to keep them around may live on in a popular superstition. It's one that I just learned about this year, and it inspired the entire post: If you don't put away your Hina Dolls in a timely manner, you won't be able to marry off your daughters!

The origins of this superstition seem pretty old, but from what I've found online, it seems like they have their roots in two places. The first is just what I said above. Moving your troubles into the dolls doesn't help you any if you keep them around after. The second is more interesting for fans of words.

It's kind of a play on the multiple meanings of the word 片付く(かたづく； katazuku), which can made into the transitive verb 片付ける、meaning "to clean up," or "put in order" which is what you have to do to the dolls. But it can also mean "to be married off," which is what you can do with your daughters, if you clean up the dolls on time!

「雛人形を早く片付けるほど娘が早く実家から片付く！」

謹賀新年

きんがしんねん, kinga shinnen, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Seeing as how I am the Daily Yo-Ji's one and only "Toshi Otoko" for 2009 (and, before any of you say it, no, I am not 36 or 48. Or 60, dammit!), I hereby take it upon myself to write the 1st Yo-ji of the new year.


As 2008 draws to a close (when this goes up, I, on the East Coast of the US will still be in last year, although those of you in Japan will already be in the future), I think I speak for my compatriots here at the Daily Yoji in expressing my deepest gratitude to you, the reader, for helping us get through the year. In our first full year, we saw a number of changes (hopefully for the better!) including the addition of Brett and myself to the "writing" staff, and the addition of the 2-kyuu grammar and Japanese Language Trivia features. (I know that I, personally, am looking forward to seeing Jeff and Brett continue with the 1-kyu grammar...)

I also want to let you all know that I have firmly resolved (kind of) that, in the new year, I will write oodles more entries for the Daily Yo-ji, hopefully with a more legitimate motif than "things that could possibly be said about Nirav" or "things that Nirav wishes people would say about him." With luck, 2009 will see us solidify our title of foremost Yo-ji Jukugo Site in English (not actually a title we got from anyone, but one that I'm going to go ahead and award to us, anyway).

Which brings us to today's (quite relevant, I might add) yo-ji, 謹賀新年.

The most common place that you will see this yo-ji is on what are known as 年賀状 （ねんがじょう - see the example at left）, which translates roughly into "New Year's Greetings Cards." In Japan, Nengajo is serious business, and, as I understand it, all families send out their own to just about everyone they know, but especially those close to them and those with which they had some kind of contact in the previous year (I got ones from co-workers, people whose organizations I had visited, friends, and even the shop where I had bought my motorcycle). I remember visiting my former host-parents in Kyoto for New Year's in 2007, and Nengajo were arriving by the hundreds in the last days of the year, with even a few stragglers after the year had officially begun. They are very proper people, so they might be the exception in terms of number, but most households both send and receive a number of cards every year. Some people buy pre-printed ones, but many people make their own (any stationary store in Japan will have a little "Nengajo Corner" full of stamps, blank sheets, and everything you need to make your own original cards). Japanese people often compare the Anglo-American custom (which, I assume despite having no knowledge, also applies in other Anglophone countries) of sending Christmas cards, and the comparison is valid to a point, although 1) I don't know of many people who make their own cards and 2) Nengajo are sent regardless of religion (although my decidedly non-Christian family sends Christmas cards of one sort or another every year...).

The first kanji of this phrase is 謹. This character can also be read つつしむ, which means roughly "to control oneself" or "abstain." For our purposes, it will be most useful to get out of this a sense of restraint borne of humility - because it is in the phrase mostly to show one's deference to the reader/listener, and make it humble language. 賀 is an interesting character that means "greetings" or "blessings," or even something like "good luck." Brett, Jeff, and I all know it from the place name 佐賀、which is where we all met (although in that case it is most likely just an 当て字, and the meaning itself isn't really relevant beyond its auspiciousness). Put 謹 and 賀 together, and you get "My humble wishes..." This thought is conveniently finished as "...for the new year!" by 新年. 新 is rather easily "new," and 年 is quite obviously "year," and there you have it, a greeting for the new year.

Definition:
年明けの挨拶

Translation:

1) Happy New Year!
2) Best wishes for the new year!

Example Sentence(This is going to be a cop out）
お正月の郵便箱からは、謹賀新年の字で飾った年賀状があふれ出した。
On New Year's Day, the mailbox was overflowing with cards wishing "Happy New Year!"