January 12, 2021 -- first class -- New Year writing, culture, YouTube Song

 January 12, 2021 --  Tuesday

令和3年1月12日　――　火曜日

 

A.  Warm-up ワームアップ    

新年　明けまして　おめでとうございます。Happy New Year！

           (more literally, “the new year brightens, congratulations”)

                    しんえん　あけまして  おめでとう　ございます            Type this greeting twice, with kanji. 

The beginning of １月　is also known as お正月（しょうがつ）

                                                                               正means correctness, virtue

This year is the Year of the Ox (cow/bull/bovine of some kind)

                                        牛年　or, more traditionally　丑年

 

 

B.    One of the significant foods for the New Year is mochi, made of sticky rice that has been pounded until it is a solid mass.  It is then made into all kinds of special treats, like dango dumplings.  And here is a new song that is about dango, in this case, 3 mochi dumplings on a stick, basted with a sauce made of soy sauce and sugar, who are assumed to be brothers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TifE3hqyBfA

or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfI3JiY5xS4

 

C.  Can you answer these questions with complete Japanese sentences in the past tense?

       お正月（の時）に　何　を　しました　か。

　　

　　どう　でした　か。

 

             Examples:

            　　お正月　に　私　は　だんご　を　食べました。

　　おいしかった　です。

 

D.   If there’s time, story narration/dictation.

 

 

 

Cultural Note：

Kakizome (書き初め, literally "first writing") is a Japanese term for the first calligraphy written at the beginning of a year, traditionally on January 2. Other terms include kissho (吉書), shihitsu (試筆) and hatsusuzuri (初硯).

Traditionally, kakizome was performed using ink rubbed with the first water drawn from the well on New Year's Day. Seated facing a favorable direction, people would write Chinese poetry containing auspicious words and phrases such as long life, spring, or perennial youth. These poems were then often burned.

In modern times, people often write out auspicious kanji rather than poems. School pupils up to senior high school are assigned kakizome as their winter holiday homework. Each year on January 5, several thousand calligraphers gather at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo's Chiyoda-ku for a kakizome event that is widely covered by media.

The kakizome paper is usually burned on January 14 in the Sagicho festival. If the burning paper flies high, it is said that the person will be able to write a more fair hand.

宿題　　　しゅくだい　　　Homework

Type the New Year greeting above, twice.

Answer in Japanese the two questions in section C, above.