Contents
Intro
There are many ways to celebrate the new year but one of the popular things to do is to eat new year food. Just as the Korean people have rice cake soup and the Mexican people tamales, the Japanese people enjoy soba noodles, Osechi (おせち), and Ozoni (お雑煮) as their traditional New Year food. This article briefly captures what each of the foods means and represents.
Toshikoshi Soba (年越しそば)
Soba (そば) means a Japanese buckwheat noodle and Toshikoshi (年越し) means passing a year. The Japanese people usually eat soba noodles on New Year’s Eve as an action representing cutting off bad luck and possible disasters. One may imagine that soba noodles came to represent “cutting off” as this buckwheat noodle is easy to cut off when eating. Other sayings tell that people began to eat soba noodles on New Year’s Eve for longevity as the noodles are long and thin.
Osechi (おせち)
Osechi does not represent one food; rather, it stands for a group of foods that have been popularly prepared for celebrating New Year and praying for health and luck. Traditionally, Osechi is constituted of quintuple stacks where each stack contains different meanings and thus different foods.
| Stack | Meaning |
| First | Longevity, Prosperity in offspring, Family Safety |
| Second | Success in school and business |
| Third | Fame, Happy marital life |
| Fourth | Good health and better luck in the family |
| Fifth | Empty stack (to receive blessing from the gods) |
First Stack: Longevity, Prosperity in offspring, Family Safety
To represent longevity, prosperity in offspring, and family safety, pickled herring roe, black bean, anchovies, and burdock are popularly used.
| Food | Represent |
| Herring roe | Prosperity in offspring |
| Black bean | Healthy Life |
| Anchovies | Rich harvest (anchovies used to be good fertilizers) |
| Burdock | Family Safety |
The combination of black bean, herring roe, and anchovies (or burdock in the Kansai region) is a traditional and popular side dish for alcoholic beverages. That is another reason why these foods were in the first (the top) stack of the Osechi.
Second Stack: Success in School and Business
The second stack contains confectionery for garnishing and vinegared side dishes. For the confectionery side dishes, Osechi offers seaweed roll, Kuri-Kinton (mashed sweet potato and candied chestnuts in syrup), Stir-fried fish and egg, and fish cakes (white and red). As vinegared side dishes, there are Namasu (vinegared reddish and carrot), lotus root, and Chorogi (Chinese artichoke). Each dish then represents the following meanings:
| Food | Type | Represent |
| Seaweed Roll | Confectionery | Joy |
| Kuri-Kinton | Confectionery | Financial prosperity |
| Stir-fried fish and egg | Confectionery | Success in school |
| Fish cakes (white) | Confectionery | Joy |
| Fish cakes (red) | Confectionery | Innocence |
| Namasu | Vinegar | Peace |
| Lotus root | Vinegar | Bright Future |
| Chorogi | Vinegar | Longevity |
Third Stack: Fame, Happy marital life
The third stack finally brings some main dishes. Traditionally, the main dishes were prepared with seafood. It is because it was taboo to kill animals from the very first day of the year. Yet such belief died down now, and there are people eating hams, roasted beef, and grilled beef. The traditional main dishes then contain, yellowtail, snapper, shrimp, salmon, ear-shell, and hard clams. They can be served raw or grilled. Each seafood represents:
| Food | Represent |
| Yellowtail | Fame |
| Snapper | Celebration |
| Shrimp | Longevity |
| Salmon | Good Health |
| Ear-shell | No spilled-out blessings |
| Hard Clams | Good Marital life |
Fourth Stack: Good health and better luck in the family
The fourth stack mainly contains boiled vegetables. It is said that boiled dishes are usually cooked with the ingredients put in the same pot and being together in the same pot came to represent the harmonious family. Popular Osechi vegetable dishes are lotus root, taro, Yatsugashira (another type of taro), arrowhead, bamboo shoot, and Konjac. Each dish then represents:
| Food | Represent |
| Lotus root | Bright Future |
| Taro | Prosperity in offspring |
| Yastugashira | Success in business (reaching the top of an organization) |
| Arrowhead | Prosperity in offspring |
| Bamboo shoot | Better lucks in the family |
| Konjac | Good marital life |
Fifth Stack: Empty stack to receive gods’ blessings
The last stack of the Osechi traditional was empty. People wanted to receive blessings from the gods and they left an empty stack as a room for the blessings to receive. Of course, the food contained in the first four stacks were offerings back in the ancient days, so the people expected blessings in return, but such a religious tendency died down, and now it is more common to simply enjoy the Osechi food in separate stacks without having to put them in the quintuple stacks.
Ozoni (お雑煮)
The last traditional Japanese New Year food is Ozoni. It is a soup with mochi (thick and sticky rice cake), and various ingredients regardless of meat, seafood, and vegetables. Yet the details of the ingredients may differ from region to region, while Mochi is a must in Ozoni. It is because the tradition of Ozoni started with offerings to the god of the year whom people offered rice cakes, the crops, seafood, and meat they harvested cooked in the very first water they drew in the new year. The first water then represents a clean start.
Outro
This article explored various traditional Japanese New Year foods. Overall, these traditional foods represent longevity, success in school and business, happy marital life, and good health. May the coming year be filled with the blessings of longevity, academic and professional triumphs, joyful unions, and robust well-being, echoing the essence of Soba noodles, Osechi, and Ozoni.
