Some Japanese People Already Started Preparations For New Year?

It's already in the second half of November and weather is getting cold day by day. Although there is still more than one month to see the new year in, some of the traditional Japanese customs to prepare for the end of the year and the new year has been started?

In Japanese traditional custom, people exchange postcards for New-Year-greetings. Even though young generation tend to use e-mails for the greetings nowadays, still many people send actual postcards. Of course it is still too early to send out postcards for New-Year-greetings, but some people already have a preparation related to New-Year-greetings in this month.

In Japanese culture, people hold back greetings and celebrating for the coming new year when they lost any close family members during the year because they are in mourning for the loss. In the case, they send out a special kind of postcards to let everybody know "we'll skip New Years's greetings for our loss...". These postcards are called "being-in-mourning cards".

The typical design for these "being-in-mourning cards" are sacred lotus flowers and chrysanthemum flowers in gray color or pale color as you can see in the left hand side photo. There are also special stamps for these "being-in-mourning cards", since stamps with cheerful designs or colors wouldn't fit the situation.

Then, those who received the "being-in-mourning card" take the sender's name out from their list of New-Year-greeting cards for the coming new year. With this process, people can avoid bothering each other's mourning and celebration during new year holidays.

Thus, to consider other people's preparation for their New Year's greeting cards, the "being-in-mourning cards" should be sent out by the middle of November, so I'm already receiving some "being-in-mourning cards". Therefore I think sending out "being-in-mourning cards" can be included in preparations for New Year.