A Happy New Year to You! 新年おめでとうございます。

The year 2012 has started. I wish all the best for you throughout the year!

During the New Year's holiday, Japanese people greet each other with expression, "Shinnen akemashite omedetou gozaimasu," which means "Congratulations! The new year has come!" It expresses the joy of meeting the new year with good health and spirits. As I said in one of my earlier essays, the end of a year is the end of an old life, and the beginning of a year is a renewal, a revival of life. That is why the New Year's Day is special. It is said that about 70 percent of Japanese visit Shinto shrines during the first three days of the New Year's holiday, praying for happiness, success, health, and prosperity throughout the year.

Until about 60 years ago, Japanese people counted their age, not by the number of birthdays they had celebrated, but by the number of New Year's Days they had gone through, plus one year. By this I mean that when a baby was born, he or she was already one year old. That makes sense because the baby had been in his or her mother's womb for about a year. Also, Japanese people couldn't think of an age "zero year old." After that, on every New Year's Day the baby became one year older. This means that a baby who was born on 31 December became two years old on the following day. I am trying to show you how important the New Year's Day was for Japanese people.

Not all Japanese were so joyful on the first day of the year. Some were cynical about the spree during the New Year's holiday. The famous 15th-century Zen priest Ikyuu (1394-1481) has left the following poem:
"The New Year's Day is a milestone for the journey to the Nether World.
It is an occasion both auspicious and not auspicious."
Reality is that however healthy, successful, or prosperous we may be, every second we are getting older and getting closer to death.

Our life does not go according to our wishes. It's nice if our wishes are fulfilled. Then we should be grateful. We should also be grateful if our wishes are not fulfilled because in disappointment we are given the opportunity to reflect on the reality of impermanence of life and, perhaps, on the selfish nature of our wishes. It is good to experience frustration and disappointment once in a while because that is the time we can truly understand the pain other people are having due to unfulfilled wishes and disasters.

2012年が始まりました。今年が皆さんにとって良い年であることを願っております。松の内の間、日本人は「あけましておめでとうございます」と挨拶します。健康に新年を迎えられたことを喜ぶ言葉でしょう。以前このブログで申しましたように、年の暮れは古い命の終わりであり、新年は生命の再生です。だから元旦は私たちにとって特別な日なのです。正月の三が日には日本の人口の７０パーセントが初詣に出かけて、その年の仕合わせ、成功、健康、繁栄を祈願します。

戦前は「数え年」といって、日本では年齢を、それまで迎えた誕生日の数ではなくて、元旦の数で数えていました。赤ちゃんが生まれると自動的に１歳です。そして正月を迎えるたびに年齢が一つ増えました。生まれた時に１歳というのは、おそらく０歳なんて考えられなかったのだろうし、お母さんのおなかにすでに１年近くいたからでしょう。しかし数え年のやり方に従うと、１２月３１日に生まれた赤ちゃんは次の日に２歳になってしまいます。私が言おうとしているのは、日本人にとって、正月がこれほど大切な日だったということです。

かといって、日本人のすべてが正月を手放しで喜んでいたわけではありません。中には覚めた目で正月の空騒ぎを見ていた人もいます。１５世紀の有名な禅僧・一休宗純 (1394-1481)は「正月は冥土の旅の一里塚　めでたくもあり　めでたくもなし」という歌を残しています。私たちがいかに健康で、成功していて、繁盛していても、刻一刻年をとっていて、死に近づいているのです

人生は自分の望み通り行かないものです。望みが叶うことはすばらしいですし、感謝しなければなりません。しかし望みが叶わなくても感謝すべきです。その理由は、失望を通じて私たちは人生の無常を体感できるし、おそらく自分の望みの利己性に気づかされる機会を与えられるからです。時には挫折したり失望するのもいいでしょう。その時こそ、望みが達成できなかったり、災難に遭ったりして悲しんでいる人たちの痛みが分かる時ですから。