Omamori and omikuji - Japanese tradition of New Year's Day

As I wrote before, I visited a local shrine for hatsumoude (the Japanese custom of first visit shrine in new year).

We usually buy 'omamori' and 'omikuji' during hatsumoude. Of course I did as well. In the left side of the picture above is my omamori ( the yellow cloth pouch ). The right side is my omikuji (the scroll of paper w/ Japanese characters written on it).

An omamori is a Japanese amulet. The word comes from 'mamori' which means 'protection'. People believe that omamori will protect them from bad things and that each type has its own special effect.

There are several kinds of omamori. An omamori gives you good health and another one gives you a good result in studying. People usually put in their bags so they can carry it anywhere because you never predict whenever we encounter misfortune.

An omikuji's fortune is usually random and gives you advice on how to live happier in the new year. Do you want to know what advice the omikuji gives you? OK, I'll show you some of my omikuji. It is written in old style of Japanese.

運勢 大吉

運勢 (unsei) means 'one's fortune in new year' and 大吉 (dai-kichi) means 'the greatest blessing'. I must be very lucky this year.

恋愛 自我を抑えれば大吉

恋愛 (rennai) means "love" or "romance". Omikuji tells me that I will find good in love if I loose my ego. Omikuji usually has Japanese old-fashioned ideas about love. It never tells 'be passionate about love!'. :)

FYI:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omamori
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omikuji

Is this year a rabbit year?

I visited Kotohira shrine at Kagawa Prefecture for Hatsu moude, the first shrine visit of the new year, with some friends from my university yesterday. Many people visited there because it is a very famous shrine.

At the shrine I found Miffy, a famous rabbit character, many times. 

Do you know why Miffy was there?

Because we have a custom in which we allocate one of twelve animals to each year and this year's animal is the rabbit. The twelve animals are allocated periodically, so twelve years from now will be also a year of the rabbit.

This custom is called "Eto" and the twelve animals are called "Juni shi"

According to Wikipedia, it was originally a cyclic numeral system in ancient China and was used as a calendar system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagenary_cycle

We don't use eto for numerical system even now but we have allocated an animal to each year.

FYI: All of Juni-shi are as follows.

1 子 (ne） : rat
2 牛 (ushi) : ox or buffalo
3 虎 (tora) : tiger
4 卯 (u) : rabbit
5 辰 (tatsu) : dragon
6 巳 (mi) : snake
7 午 (uma) : horse
8 未 (hitsuji): sheep
9 申 (saru) : monkey
10 鶏 (tori) : chicken
11 戌 (inu) : dog
12 亥 (i) : pig or boar

Please note that several characters are written and pronounced in a very old style of Japanese.

Happy New Year

I visited to a shrine close to my home for "Hatsu moude" with my family in this morning.

"Hatsu moude" is Japanese custom that we visit a shrine for the first time in new year and pray for happiness and good health.

I prayed for happiness and good health of my family and success on my business.

What do usually do in new year's day in your country? Do you have a similar custom ?

FYI: 

Hatsu (初) means first time and moude （詣）means to visit a temple or shrine in Japanese.