Sunday, January 5, 2020

1月6日(月曜日)2020
お正月の飾りは松の内が終わる1月7日までで「鏡開き」は11日が一般的だそうですが、一昨年、床の間に鏡餅を長く飾っておいてお餅が石のように固くなって切り分けるのに大変苦労したので、私の勝手な判断で去年から三が日が終わったところで、お餅を下げています。鏡餅をいつまで飾っておくのか調べようとネットを見たら、そもそも何故鏡餅を新年に飾るのかということが書いてあり興味深かったです。諸説あるようですが分かりやすいところでは、お正月には歳神様と呼ばれる神様が家にやって来られるので、鏡餅はその歳神様におそなえするためのものだとか。お正月の間に歳神様は鏡餅に宿ってくださるそうです。そして鏡開きをして神様の魂が宿ったお餅をいただくことで歳神様の運気や力を分け与えてもらうとともに一年の無病息災を願うという意味があるとのこと。「鏡開き」は鏡餅を切り分けることですが、「切る」ということばを避けて「開く」というそうです。でも実際は刃物でお餅を切ります。4日目なら切るのはそう難しくないと思いましたが、これが結構大変でお餅の中は包丁が入るのですが、外側が固くなっているのと、まるい形をしているので滑りやすく大変で、怪我をしなように慎重にゆっくり力を入れてどうにか切り分けました。
やれやれ !Decoration term for New Year is usually until Jan. 7th and the customary "Kagami-biraki (cutting of New Year's rice-cakes) " takes place on the 11th, but I decided to remove the rice-cake from the alcove on the 3rd because I had had difficulty cutting them in slices a year before last year as they had become very hard like a stone. When I checked the day of decoration term of New Year's rice-cakes, there was an explanation about why we offer rice-cakes in the New Year and I was very interested in it. Among several theories, the easiest one is the following: God of the year is coming to our house in a New Year, so we offer New Year's rice-cakes. People believe that during the New Years celebration, God of the year stays in the rice-cakes. When the celebration term is over, we cut the rice-cakes and eat them which signifies the receival of good luck and power from God as well as prayer for a healthy year. We say "Kagami-biraki" which literally means, "opening mirror" instead of saying "cutting New Year's rice-cakes" to avoid using the word "CUT" which is not appropriate for the celebration. I thought it would be easy to make slices of the big rice-cakes in three days, but actually it wasn't. I needed to pay much attention not to hurt myself when I cut them because they were round shaped and already their surfaces had become hard but I was relieved when my Kagami-biraki was successfully done. Phew!