Interested in celebrating the お正月 (pronounced as oshôgatsu) or New Year’s Eve in Japan? Then, learning the most native ways of greeting someone with a Happy New Year in Japanese will come in handy for your trip. While many of the young people in the country can speak English, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing them impressed with your Japanese speaking skills.
What better occasion to demonstrate your love for their language than New Year’s Day, right? Let’s dive deep into the Japanese language in this exclusive Ling app guide.
How To Say Happy New Year In Japanese
If you plan to impress your Japanese friends, do remember that the tradition here is that you should say Happy New Year wishes between December 31 and January 3. Usually, the locals also prepare gifts for each other as well as personally give holiday cards. The children usually receive holiday gifts known as お年玉 (pronounced as otoshidama). The gifts greatly vary, but it is more common to receive monetary gifts that can go as high as 10,000 yen!
In addition, New Year’s Eve is usually celebrated with family, and you will be surprised by how many decorations the locals’ homes will don! Additionally, the locals do 二年参り( pronounced as ninen-mairi) or the act of visiting a shrine/temple with the family while waiting for midnight.
Want to ensure that you are using the correct translation when greeting Japanese people with a Happy New Year? Say your wishes with confidence today by taking note of these best ways to wish someone like a real native speaker. Of course, there are Japanese slang versions for this, but we will focus on the most common greetings that are deemed great to use, especially if you are a foreigner.
Other Related Words In The Japanese Language
Now that we know the meaning of the most used phrases for greeting someone a happy new year in Japanese, let’s also learn about the common words related to this occasion. Take note of the table below to learn about the translations and the pronunciation guide.
| English | Japanese | Romaji | Sound |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fireworks | 花火 | hanabi | |
| Candle | キャンドル | kyandoru | |
| Temple | 寺 | tera | |
| Food | 食べ物 | tabemono | |
| Year | 年 | toshi | |
| Party | パーティ | pāti | |
| Midnight | 真夜中 | mayonaka | |
| Drinking | 飲酒 | inshu | |
| Dancing | 踊り | odori | |
| Coundown | カウントダウン | kaunto daun | |
| Toast | 乾杯 | kanpai |
Celebrating New Year’s Eve In Japan
New Year’s Eve is one of the biggest and most special occasions for most of the countries across the globe. In fact, almost every movie released for the holiday season is centered on the magic of the new year or the festive spirit that people seem to have on this special day. If that’s not enough to convince you, then just take a step back and think about the unique traditions that almost every country has just for this event alone! There’s just something about it that somehow unites us at least for a few hours till the clock strikes 1.
For the Japanese New Year, the locals celebrate it for three whole days starting from January 1 to January 3. Since this is a special time for many, it is already on their calendar, and most of the companies are closed so that employees can celebrate with their family and friends or visit some unique tourist sites in the country. What’s even more interesting is that some celebrate it for two whole weeks instead of just the regular three days in January!
Wrapping Up
As we reach this part of the post, we hope you enjoyed learning how to say Happy New Year in Japanese and were able to learn and understand more about the New Year celebrations in Japan with the best greetings to send your best wishes. So whether you are planning to celebrate with random Japanese people or simply planning to impress a colleague for the holiday season, learning the basic Japanese greetings will never let you down.
Suppose you enjoyed this post and figure you want to learn more about Japanese culture and useful words and phrases. In that case, you should not miss out on our previous articles, like the Japanese words for family members, names of colors, and the basic slang words used by young people in Japan. However, if you are someone who is more serious about diving deep into the complexities of the Japanese language, then we’ve got the best platform that you can download for free today! Get to know more about it in the section below!
Speak Japanese Today With The Ling App
Interested to learn Japanese but unsure of where and how to start? Instead of relying on the literal translation available from translators or spending too much on expensive tools and language courses, we created a language learning app that is guaranteed to expedite your language learning process. With the Ling app, you can easily access premium language courses that are developed by our team of language experts, native speakers, and educators who truly understand your needs to master this Asian language.
We cannot deny that Japanese is one of the hardest languages to learn, so we kept each lesson short and easy to understand so you won’t feel overwhelmed when learning about the language’s features. It is so flexible in the sense that you can learn something new every day by simply using the app for at least 10 minutes a day! With such a short usage period, you can focus on a particular set of words for the day and truly remember them without feeling stressed.
Since learning the Japanese language takes time, we also equipped the app with fun mini-games and challenging quizzes to ensure the retention of learned information. So, what are you waiting for? Do not miss the opportunity to use such an impressive language-learning application today!
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