Katsura's Veranda Notes | Tips for Keeping Things Going

Hello. I am Katsura, the retiree.
Thank you for reading my article again today.

The big year-end cleaning is reaching its peak,
and once it's finished, I'll put up the New Year's decorations, and then it will finally be New Year's.

Oh my!Is it because I'm getting older that a year seems to fly by in the blink of an eye...?

Well, in our house, we try to put up our New Year's decorations on December 28th if possible.
I heard that the 29th is considered 'suffering decoration' and the 31st is 'one-night decoration,' both of which are disrespectful to the New Year's deity.
That means...
As a prerequisite, the big cleaning to purify the house must be finished by then.

That said,
doing the big cleaning all at once at the end of the year is quite difficult.
So, in our house, we decided to start cleaning one area at a time, excluding the area around the entrance, before the end of the year.
I call it
the 'Rotation Big Cleaning'.

When I was living at my parents' house,
my mother's guidance was strictly enforced (laughs),
and the year-end big cleaning was such a huge job that it would make me want to cry.

So, in my generation,
I decided to update it into a 'sustainable form'.

The other day, I watched a special feature on NHK about how
'Bon Odori' (Bon dance) is spreading overseas.

Diverse people gather in one place,
transcending differences in language and culture to enjoy themselves as one.
There was an analysis suggesting that it is being accepted precisely because we live in an era where division is progressing.

Japan, once a closed island nation, was able to cultivate its own unique culture.
Since people overseas are finding that culture interesting and accepting it,
this is no time for me, a Japanese person, to give up.

I am also changing year-end and New Year's events
to fit our current lifestyles,
transforming them into a sustainable form.

With such a grand dream in my heart, I worked hard on the rotation big cleaning again this year.