This is the “festival of festivals” in Japan, and it is celebrated for several days. Government offices, banks, museums and most businesses are closed from New Year’s Day, a national holiday, through January 3. For weeks before New Year’s, people clean house and purchase new clothes for the children. On New Year’s Day, it’s customary to pray at the household altar and to eat special foods, such as small, round, gooey rice cakes called mochi. Herring roe is eaten for fertility, black beans for health, dried chestnuts for success, and porgy and prawns are omens of happiness. Discuss