Japanese New Year Traditions: How Daruma Fits Into Hatsumode and Dondoyaki

Apr 26, 2026 · Takaaki Watanabe

Japanese New Year Traditions: How Daruma Fits Into Hatsumode and Dondoyaki

Japanese New Year (Oshōgatsu) is the most important holiday of the year — a sacred time when families gather, shrines fill, and the calendar is symbolically reset. Among the rituals, three involve daruma directly: Hatsumode (the first shrine visit), setting a new wish, and Dondoyaki (the burning ceremony). This guide explains all three.

Oshōgatsu: The Three-Day Reset

Japanese New Year traditionally lasts from January 1-3. Businesses close. Families travel home. The streets quiet. It's the most still time of the Japanese year — and the most spiritually charged.

The core idea: the year is a circle, not a line. December 31 isn't an ending — it's a turning point. The fresh year is a clean slate, but only if you do the rituals to mark the transition.

Hatsumode: The First Shrine Visit

The single most important New Year ritual is Hatsumode — visiting a Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple in the first three days of January. The crowds are massive. Tokyo's Meiji Shrine sees over 3 million visitors in three days.

What people do at Hatsumode:

Pray for the year ahead — health, family, work
Buy omamori (cloth amulets) for protection
Receive omikuji (paper fortunes)
Buy a new daruma for the year's wish
Bring last year's daruma back to be burned at Dondoyaki

For many Japanese families, buying a new daruma at Hatsumode is the central act of the visit. The daruma will sit in the home for the next 365 days, watching the wish.

Setting Your New Year Wish with the Daruma

The traditional way to use a daruma at New Year:

Buy or receive a new daruma at Hatsumode (or before — many shops sell them in late December)
Choose your wish for the year. Just one. Make it specific.
On New Year's Day (or shortly after), paint the left eye. Say the wish out loud.
Place the daruma somewhere visible in the home or office
Throughout the year, look at it. Recommit to the wish.
If the wish comes true: paint the right eye. Celebrate.
At year's end: bring the daruma back to a shrine for Dondoyaki

Common New Year Wishes

What do Japanese people wish for at New Year? The most common:

Health — for self and family (most common)
Career success — promotion, new role, business growth
Academic achievement — passing entrance exams (especially for parents of high schoolers)
Love or marriage — finding a partner, getting engaged
Family — having a child, grandchildren, harmony
Self-improvement — quitting smoking, losing weight, learning a skill

The daruma is agnostic — it works for any wish, large or small.

Dondoyaki: The Ceremonial Fire (January 14-15)

Two weeks after the New Year, the second great ritual happens: Dondoyaki (どんど焼き), held at shrines on January 14-15.

What is it? A massive bonfire in which last year's amulets, talismans, and daruma — along with the rope decorations from front doors and other New Year items — are ceremonially burned. The smoke is believed to carry the year's wishes (fulfilled and unfulfilled) up to the gods.

The fire serves three purposes:

Releasing last year's wishes (whether they came true or not)
Purifying the household of last year's energies
Welcoming the new year's possibilities

Why Burn the Daruma?

This is the question I most often hear from international customers: "Why burn something so beautiful?"

The answer is buried in Japanese spiritual tradition: nothing should be held forever. The daruma's role was to witness your year. Burning it is the closing of that chapter — the freeing of the wish to whatever comes next.

Holding onto an old daruma indefinitely, in this view, is to refuse to move forward. The fire is a kindness — an act of letting go.

Other New Year Traditions to Know

Daruma is one part of a much larger New Year tapestry:

Otoshidama — money envelopes given to children
Osechi-ryōri — traditional New Year multi-tier bento meal
Kadomatsu — pine and bamboo arrangements at front doors
Shimekazari — sacred rope decoration above the door
Joya no Kane — 108 bell strikes at midnight on Dec 31, marking the dispelling of 108 worldly desires
Toshi-koshi soba — buckwheat noodles eaten on New Year's Eve for long life

How International Customers Can Honor the Tradition

If you live outside Japan, here's how to participate in the New Year daruma tradition:

Buy a new daruma in late December. Order early — December is our busiest month.
On January 1, paint the first eye. Say your wish for the year out loud.
Display the daruma somewhere visible.
Mid-January, if your wish has been fulfilled, paint the second eye. If not, no worry.
At the end of the year (or next New Year), either burn the daruma respectfully (in a fire pit), keep it as a memento, or donate it.

The tradition isn't about being in Japan. It's about marking your year with a witness.

The Power of Annual Rituals

Modern productivity culture is full of yearly resolutions, vision boards, and goal trackers. The daruma is the same idea — but ancient, simple, and tactile. You can't lose a daruma in a notes app. You see it every day.

That's why the tradition has lasted 1,500 years and shows no signs of slowing.

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