お正月(oshougatsu), which is the beginning of the calendar year, is the most important family holiday in Japan. The exact duration of oshougatsu is a bit tricky, but generally January 1st to 3rd are considered to be the height of the holidays. Some people go back to work on the 4th, but others enjoy the holiday until the 7th.
Although oshougatsu is the Japanese New Year holiday, it is similar to Thanksgiving in several ways.
Oshougatsu and Thanksgiving are both holidays that involve family and both revolve around a specific dinner menu. During oshougatsu, people eat traditional New Year’s dishes called お節 (osechi). It consists of fish, beans,and vegetables. Many of these dishes are cooked with sugar and soy sauce, so they last for a few days. People finish making osechi (or getting a store-bought osechi) by the New Year’s eve. The idea is that oshougatsu is the time to take a break from chores and enjoy spending time with the family, so you don’t do any kitchen work during the New Year’s. People also enjoy eating お餅 (omochi), which is rice cake, during oshougatsu.
Perhaps a sign of the times, both Thanksgiving and oshougatsu also signal the start of a major shopping season. In Japan, most stores are closed on January 1st, but when they re-open for the first time of the year, they hold big sales events. In many stores, especially department stores, they sell something called 福袋 (fukubukuro), which means “lucky bag”. The idea is, you only know a category of things in each paper bag, but you don’t know exactly what you’re going to get. For example, you can buy a bag that says “kitchenware”, “wine”, “ties”, “women’s clothes, size 6″. So if you get a wine lucky bag, you know you’ll find wine in the bag, but you don’t know what kind of bottles or how many bottles you’ll get. You can only open the bag after the purchase. What’s good about getting such a thing? If you buy, for example, a $50 lucky bag, you usually get goods worth around or over $200. It’s kind of a gamble and fun. But also it’s a guaranteed bargain!
