Are Japanese People Losing Traditional Eating Habits?

On January 7th, there is a traditional custom called "Nanakusa" and people eat special rice porridge with 7 kinds of vegetables which is shown in the lower right hand side photo. 

"Nana-kusa" directly means "Seven Grass". The seven kinds ingredients for this traditional porridge are exactly decided but most of them are nowadays considered as the weeds rather than vegetables. In ancient times people often took their cooking ingredients from fields, so the custom keeps a vestige of the old eating habits.

During New Year’s holidays, most Japanese people have gatherings with family and friends. Even after the holidays ended people would have New Year's parties until the end of the traditional New Year's celebration period, 7th (or sometimes 15th). Therefore people tend to have lots of food and drinks during the days, and eating rice porridge containing leaf vegetables on January 7th would be a good break for the stomach. So, "Nanakusa" is a custom of an ancestral wisdom.

However, since people just use common vegetables from shops for their daily cooking nowadays, this custom may be becoming a very unfamiliar cooking. Thus, today we can find a detailed instruction in the set of the seven ingredients of "Nanakusa" porridge when we buy it from shops.

As you can see in the instruction paper on the lower left hand side photo, there are illustrations of the seven kind of ingredient plants with the cooking direction. What's more, there is a note to explain about trifling matters of the ingredients. For example, "one of the ingredient leaves might have a black spots on it but it is a natural feature of the grass", or "the other one might contain seeds with it but the seeds are also edible", and so on. 

Perhaps, some people are completely forgetting about old eating habits cooking wild plants and became too picky about unfamiliar food in these days...?

Bamboo Trees Become Like Christmas Trees On Tanabata (Star Festival) Day In Japan

July 7th is "Tanabata Day (Star Festival)" in Japan. "Tanabata" is one of the major seasonal events in traditional Japanese custom although it is not a national holiday. For "Tanabata" event, people write their wishes on fancy paper strips and hang them on bamboo-trees (Sasa) with various paper decorations just like Christmas ornaments hanging on Christmas trees.

So these decorated bamboo trees are often seen at schools, shopping malls, and even outside on streets in the beginning of July. It is still a very common event where people enjoy participating. It is said that bamboo trees grow straight toward the sky, and with the rustling sound of the leaves it would deliver people's wishes to the stars of Tanabata legend. 

Tanabata legend is a romantic story between two stars in the sky. It was originally imported from China and taken into Japanese custom. According to the legend July 7th is a special day for the star couple because they have a once-a-year date over the Milky Way. Japanese people started thinking the star couple would grant their wishes on this happy day, so people write their wishes on paper strips and hang them on bamboo trees.

This is a kind of "Jumping on the bandwagon" wish making, so people write any kinds of wishes casually, such as "Want to hit a lottery!", "Want to get a high scores at the next exam!", "Want to stay healthy!"  and so on. If you find paper strips and pens beside Tanabata bamboo trees in a shopping mall, it's free to write any personal wishes and hang the paper. 
Please try! Hope you have a nice Tanabata Day!