Cultural Snapshots

Susuharai: Sweeping Away the Soot at the End of the Year

Lifestyle

In the runup to New Year in Japan, susuharai is a major cleaning activity in which all the dust of the last 12 months is swept away. It traditionally takes place on December 13.
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Cleaning Up

The traditional start of the countdown to Japan’s New Year festivities, susuharai literally means “sweeping away the soot.” In the Edo period (1603–1868), people performed this equivalent to spring cleaning both in and around their homes on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar. Even now, many temples conduct a big clean up on December 13.

Busy modern lifestyles may make for a later start for individuals, but the final cleaning should at least be finished by the evening of December 31, followed by a soak in the toshi no yu, or final bath of the year, to symbolically clear away the grime of the previous 12 months.

(© Pixta)
(© Pixta)

(Originally written in English. Banner photo: People clean tatami mats by striking them with bamboo sticks at Higashi Honganji temple. © Kyōdō.)

traditions New Year