Namahage
31 December 2026 — Any lazybones here? Fear not, I bring luck for the new year!
Namahage is a folk custom of the Oga Peninsula in Akita Prefecture, in northern Honshu, Japan. On New Year's Eve, men dressed in straw capes and large, fearsome masks go from house to house. They shout that lazy people and crying children should mend their ways, while the host welcomes them with food, drink and kind words. In this way evil is driven out and the home receives blessings and health for the coming year. Traditionally it was held on Koshōgatsu, the Little New Year, but today it coincides with New Year by the Gregorian calendar, which Japan follows. Villages on Oga differ in details, and today the visits take place on 31 December. In 2018 UNESCO inscribed „Raiho-shin: ritual visits of deities in masks and costumes“, which includes Namahage, on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Like Bulgarian kukeri, they protect the community through masks, noise and hope for a better year.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver star figure made of luminous dots and fine lines, like a constellation drifting across the sky: a tall masked visitor in a shaggy straw cape, with a fierce yet kindly face and a raised wooden blade, glowing softly
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