New year's Decoration ?

1.What is hagoita ? What is hamayumi?

The first new year after a baby was born is called"hatsu-shogatsu."(Hatsu means first and shogatsu means new year.) There is an old tradition to cerebrate this children by grandparents and relatives as well as the parents'brothers and sisters, nakodo (go-between) and friends sending hagoita (a wooden shuttlecock paddle)to a baby girl and hamayumi (exorcism bow and arrow originating from a Sninto ritual notarms) to a baby boy at that time. Both hagoita and hamayumi originated from yearly fortune-telling and expellingbad luck which are the traditional evens during the New year since ancinte times. It is said that the origin of hamaya is that a boy told a fortune for the year by shooting a target with a bow and arrow and the beginning of hagoita is that a girl expelled her bad luck by hitting the hane.

2.Why the hagoita is a girl's good-luck charm ?

　 Hagoita is used in hanetsuki,a traditional girl' game for New Year's played by one or two person.The hagoita hits a shuttlecock called a hane made of black hard- ball-shaped soapberry seeds and feathers.The soapberry is called "mukuroji" in Japanese,written with characters meaning "a child not suffering from illness." In short,hagoita is a good-luck charm to insure the sound health of the baby. In addition,the hane resembles the dragonfly which eats mosquitoes.Therefore,as mosquitoes are afraid of the hane,hagoita have the additional meaning of protection for the baby from mosquitoes.

3.Why the hamayumi is a boy's good-luck charm ?

　Originally target shot at by a bow (yumi) was called hama,which is now written with characters meaning"to repel evil spirits." Therefore,the name,hamayumi,represents a good-luck charm to avoid misfortune.Similarly,hamaya (ya means arrow) are gifts from a shrine when making the first visit of the year (hatsumode).Another type of hamaya is set up on the ridge in the direction of the"demon gate" at the ceremony of putting up the ridge-beam when newly build a house.

4.From when to when are hagoita and hamaya used for decoration ?

It is desirable to set them out from the middle to the end of December. Then a banquet wiil be held by inviting pepole who gave presents during New Year. The star of this celebration is the baby,of course. It is recommended to put them away around January 15 because around this time, there is a fire festival which burns shimenawa (a cord made by twisting together strands of rice straw) and matsukazari (New Year's pine decorations).This fire festival is called donto-yaki or dondon-yaki in Japanese. In this way,the sound growth of children is prayed for.