Ōmisoka
31 December 2026 — Long noodles for a long life and 108 bell strokes – farewell, old year!
Ōmisoka is the last day of the year in Japan, observed on 31 December. Misoka is the last day of each month, while Ōmisoka – the “great last day” – is the last day of the year. People tidy and clean their homes (ōsōji) to welcome the new year with a fresh start. In the evening it is traditional to eat toshikoshi soba, long buckwheat noodles. Their length stands for a long life, and because the noodles are easy to bite through, they are also seen as a way of cutting away the hardships of the past year. Around midnight, Buddhist temples ring their bells 108 times in a ceremony called Joya no Kane, with the final stroke usually falling in the new year. In Buddhist tradition the number 108 is linked to human worldly desires and worries, and each stroke symbolically dispels one. The holiday follows the Gregorian calendar, so it falls on the same date every year. Many families also spend the evening watching the televised music show Kōhaku Uta Gassen.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver star figure made of luminous dots and thin lines, forming a great temple bell like a constellation drifting across the sky
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