明(あ)けましておめでとうございます。
Happy New Year!
昨年(さくねん)はサポートをありがとうございました。
Thank you for your support last year!
素晴(すば)らしい一年(いちねん)になりますように。
I hope you will have a great year.
Today's Instagram posts are the New Year's special! Did you like it? lol
I hope you learned more about the words/phrases for Japanese New Years!
I would like to write the detail of my posts on here.
First of all, you should know how to say Happy New Year by now.
It is kind of long when you say it in formal style.
明(あ)けましておめでとうございます。
We always add this phrase.
今年(ことし)もよろしくお願(ねが)いします。 Best wishes for this year!
When I text to my friends, I say it casually like this.
明(あ)けましておめでとう! 今年(ことし)もよろしく :)
This is the most common way to say Happy New Year in Japanese.
In slang,
あけおめ！ことよろ！
Do you know about the Japanese Animal Zodiac called 干支 えと eto?
It is originally from China, so most of the animals are the same as Chinese zodiac.
These 12 signs were used to be used to read the time, directions, years and stars in the old days.
This is the list of 干支. The first letter is the kanji and the next one is how to read that kanji. ね, う, み, い are abbreviated words so I added the full word between (). I added the years next to the animal, so you know which animal year you were born. Which animal are you?
子 ね (ねずみ) – mouse 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008
丑 うし – ox 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009
寅 とら – tiger 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010
卯 う (うさぎ)– rabbit 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011
辰 たつ – dragon 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012
巳 み (へび) – snake 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013
午 うま – horse 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014
未 ひつじ – sheep 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015
申 さる – monkey 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016
酉 とり– chicken 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017
戌 いぬ– dog 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018
亥 い (いのしし) – boar 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019
These kanji are originally from agriculture-farming words and they actually didn't have meanings of animals at first.
People added the meanings of animals to remember them easier, so these kanji and meanings are only used for Japanese zodiac.
Like I mentioned earlier, 干支 is from China but we have a few different animals in our zodiac. 2019 is a year of Boar in Japan, but in China, its a year of Pig! It's interesting, isn't it?
Lastly, I would like to talk about Osechi food (←Click to read the meaning of each dishes in Osechi)
We use special chopsticks to eat it. The thinner side is for god, so you need to use the thicker side of chopsticks to eat おせち. We even have an order to eat each dishes, but don't worry too much, enjoy the dish with your family and friends.
The food in the おせち each has special meanings, mainly to wish for well being.
When we eat おせち, we also eat お雑煮(ぞうに), which is similar to miso soup but has mochi in it.
I like Japanese culture. We have interesting histories and meanings. I hope you do too!
Thank you for reading and I will see you tomorrow (or tonight) on Instagram :)
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