Osechi (お節) is a traditional Japanese New Year meal. The tradition started in the Edo period. This page deals with the annual event. ... A meal is an instance of eating, specifically one that takes place at a specific time and includes specific, prepared food. ... History of Japan Paleolithic Jomon Yayoi Yamato period ---Kofun period ---Asuka period Nara period Heian period Kamakura period Muromachi period Azuchi-Momoyama period ---Nanban period Edo period Meiji period Taisho period Showa period ---Japanese expansionism ---Occupied Japan ---Post-Occupation Japan Heisei The Edo period (江戸時代) is a division of Japanese...

The dishes that make up Osechi each have a special meaning celebrating the New Year.

Some examples are:

Kuro-mame (黒豆, Black soybeans): "Mame" means "health". (Wish for good health in the New Year)

Konbu (昆布, Seaweed): "Yorokobu" means "joy". (Wish for a joyful year)

Tai (鯛, Red sea-bream): "Medetai" means "happy event". (Wish for happy events in the New Year)

Kazunoko (数の子, Herring roe): "Ko" means "child". (Wish to be gifted with children in the New Year)

Daidai (橙, Japanese bitter orange): "Daidai" means "from generation to generation". (Wish to be gifted with children in the New Year)

Datemaki (伊達巻き) sweet rolled omelette mixed with fish paste or mashed shrimp

Soybean - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Seaweed covered rocks in the UK Phycologists consider seaweed to refer any of a large number of marine benthic algae that are multicellular, macrothallic (large-bodied), and thus differentiated from most algae that tend towards microscopic size (Smith, 1944). ... Bream Abramis brama is a general term for a number of species of freshwater and marine fish, mainly, but not exhaustively, drawn from the genera Abramis, Acanthopagrus, Argyrops, Blicca, Brama, Etelis, Gymnocranius, Lethrinus, Nemipterus, Rhabdosargus and Scolopsis. ... Family Clupeidae This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Salmon roe at the Shiogama seafood market in Japan Look up Roe in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Roe is the fully ripe egg masses of fish and certain marine invertebrates, such as sea urchins and shrimp. ... Bitter Orange is a name used to refer to several citrus or citrus-like fruit trees. ...

History

Osechi means originally o-sechi, the season or the significant period. The New Year day was one of the five sekku, the seasonal festivals, in the imperial court. This custom of celebrating particular days was introduced from China into the ancient Japan. This article is about January 1 in the Gregorian calendar. ... Imperial Court in Kyoto was the nominal ruling government of Japan since 794 until the Meiji Era, in which the court was moved to Tokyo and was integrated into the Meiji government. ...

Originally during first three days of the New year it was a taboo to use a hearth and cook meals except when cooking zoni. Osechi was made within the last year (during the previous year) and women didn't cook in the New year. Today, in most families, people cook osechi as a usual dish and its religious aspect has been lost. There are things that have the name Zoni: Places In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa Zoni, Democratic Republic of Congo In Greece, Europe, Greek: Ζώνη) Zoni, a village in the west southwestern part of the prefecture of Arcadia Zoni, a village in the northern part of the Evros prefecture...

In the early days Osechi consisted only from nimono, cooked vegetable with shoyu and suger or mirin. It has been enriched in the modern Japanese. Today Osechi means anything prepared specially for the new year, and some foreign dishes have been adopted under the name of Seiyoosechi (westernized osechi) or Chinese style osechi (chukafu osechi).