Oshogatsu (New Year)
Oshogatsu (New Year)
Priests and shrine maidens at Meiji Shrine, Tokyo ©
This festival is marked on 1 January.
It's traditional at New Year to visit a shrine. People go to thank the kami, ask the kami to give them good fortune in the coming year, and make their new year resolutions in the presence of the kami.
Shrine attendance is huge for this festival - the estimate for attendance during New Year 2003 was that 32 shrines and Buddhist temples had more than 500,000 visitors each. Meiji Shrine in Tokyo expected over 3 million visitors over the festival period.