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Did you know that many of our students celebrate more than one New Year?

While students in Japan only ring in one New Year, those in South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand look forward to two or more: the January 1st New Year, a Lunar New Year usually within a month of the previous one, and in the case of Thailand, a Buddhist New Year in April.

Read on to find out how our students spend January 1st, what questions you can ask to spark conversation, as well as what vocabulary (bolded) you can introduce to help them talk about this topic!

New Year in Japan 🎍

Unlike in other countries, the Japanese New Year is a rather quiet affair. While there are crazy end-of-year parties, also known as year-end parties, leading up to the big day, New Year for most people involves going back to their hometowns, where they relax with their family.

How do you plan to spend your New Year holiday? What are some things you usually do on New Year’s?
Would you rather spend time with family or travel during your New Year holiday?
How long is your New Year’s break?
Does your company host end-of-year parties? What do you think about them?

Typical activities include drinking soup with mochi in it, watching an annual music competition, visiting a shrine or temple, and eating delicacies in a box.

What are some special foods you eat for New Year’s?
What are some special TV programs people watch on New Year’s Eve?
I hear some people like to catch a sunrise on January 1st. Why do you think this is? And have you tried this before?
Do you stay up until midnight on New Year’s Eve? If so, what do you do?

Despite the rather subdued celebrations, New Year is actually one of the most important holidays in Japan, and there is a lot of prep work compared with other holidays.

End-of-Year Cleaning

For one, it’s time for some end-of-year cleaning. This is a chance to not only give your home a thorough scrub-down but also to de-clutter it (i.e. throw away all the junk you don’t actually need!).

What does your end-of-year cleaning involve?
How much time do you spend on end-of-year cleaning?
Are there any other times of the year that you do deep cleaning?

End-of-year cleaning isn’t just done in private homes, but also in workplaces, religious establishments, and schools, where students as young as kindergarteners make their classrooms sparkling clean!

Do you clean your own school or office as well at the end of the year?
Does your company hire janitors? Or do the employees do all the cleaning?
Do people also clean up their neighborhoods?

Traditionally, the point of this custom was to clean away anything bad from the previous year so you could welcome the new one with a clean home and a refreshed mind.

Where do you think the tradition of cleaning your home at the end of the year came from?
Does your family have any end-of-year cleaning traditions?

However, according to a recent survey, fewer people perform end-of-year cleaning these days.

Why do you think fewer people do end-of-year cleaning?
If you regularly clean a space, would you still do end-of-year cleaning?
If you couldn’t do end-of-year cleaning, would you hire help?
Do you like cleaning and doing household chores? (Some hate it. Others find it therapeutic.)

Decorations

In addition to making sure their homes are spotless, many households and shops also put up bamboo and pine decorations in front of their homes. These are traditionally placed there to welcome New Year’s deities who bring good fortune.

What kind of decorations do you put up for New Year?
I heard that bamboo and pine decorations are put up for New Year. What do these plants represent?
Do towns and cities also get decorated for New Year?

Many people also put out little ornaments representing zodiac animals. For example, if it’s the year of the cow, you’ll see some miniature cows at houses and stores.

What’s your zodiac animal?
What do the animals represent?

New Year Cards

In Japan, the New Year is also synonymous with greeting cards.

This tradition apparently comes from the custom of calling on your friends and family on New Year’s Day. Since it wasn’t possible to deliver in-person greetings to all the important people in your life, people started sending out cards.

Do people just send cards or do they send presents as well?
I hear that kids get gifts of money on New Year’s Day. Is that true?

Thought to have started over a thousand years ago, this tradition remains strong to this day. For example, on the first day of 2020 alone, over one billion New Year’s cards were delivered.

Where do you think this custom of sending New Year’s cards came from?
Do you send New Year cards? Did you make them yourself?
Why do you think this tradition/custom is so popular?

These greeting cards take many forms, with the most typical being postcards. People also customize their cards with photos of themselves or their family.

What are some typical designs you find on New Year cards? (For example, a lot feature pictures of the coming year’s zodiac animal.)
What are some pros and cons of sending physical New Year cards vs e-cards?
I hear the New Year cards come with a lottery. Can you tell me about this?

In preparation for this event, the postal service sets up a separate New Year card delivery service, which ensures that your cards will be delivered exactly on January 1st!

Can you tell me about this special service Japan Post sets up specifically for New Year cards? How are cards delivered exactly on New Year’s Day?
Is it bad if a New Year’s card arrives before or after January 1st? If so, why? (In the US, for example, it’s OK if a Christmas card comes before Christmas.)

There’s a lot more we could share about New Year in Japan, but we’ll let your students take it from here!

New Year in South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand

Meanwhile, in South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, there aren’t many traditions associated with January 1st.

What are some differences between these two New Years? (e.g. Who do you spend Lunar New Year with? Who do you celebrate January 1st with?)
What are some things people do on New Year’s? (People do send New Year cards and catch sunrises in these countries too.)

However, January 1st is still a day off in South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, and there are plenty of firework displays, concerts, and countdown events for those who want to get festive.

What are your plans for New Year’s’ Eve?
Would you rather attend a countdown event in-person or watch it live-streamed at home?

For example, you can find many New Year events in South Korea here. And in Taiwan, the biggest event is the Taipei 101 (the tallest building in the country) lighting up in fireworks.

Thailand has a larger variety of events, including street parties, temple visits, and a lantern festival in the northern city of Chiang Mai.

Friends releasing a lantern into the air.

What is the significance of releasing a lantern into the air?
Why do you think there’s a lantern festival on New Year’s Eve?

👋 That’s it for now!

If you want more inspiration for things to talk about with your students, check out these Daily News articles:

In the meantime, happy tutoring and Happy New Year!