Osechi
Traditional Japanese New-Year Foods
Osechi dishes (New Year dishes) are eaten at New Year’s to celebrate the new year. The food is offered to the Toshigami (gods of the New Year) who are present in each household at New Year’s, and is eaten after the year is over as a blessing from the gods. The ingredients and menu items used in Osechi are filled with wishes for a bountiful harvest, good health, and the prosperity of offspring. Osechi are also filled in layered boxes, which are meant to “bring happiness over and over again.
26 items of traditional Japanese New-Year foods
