We go shopping to buy a lot of food and decorate our house with rice cakes and oranges. We also write a huge number of New Year s Cards to keep touch with relatives and friends. In general, people get the cards on January 1, so we should send the cards at least 5 days before New Year s Day. An interesting point is that most cards come with a lottery number. The TV and newspaper tells us the prize number in the middle of January.
Lucky people can get electric products, bicycles, stamps, and other prizes.
On New Year s Eve, we have a lot of food, such as hors d oeuvre, meet dishes, sushi, sashimi, sukiyaki, and other foods. Before 12 O clock midnight, we eat Japanese noodles called soba. Eating this noodle means that you will have a long life because the noodle is generally long and the ingredients of soba are good for your health. After that, many people stay up all night watching special programs on TV, or they go to a temple to pray about the hope of the new year. At temple, they buy a talisman and fortune paper which tells us our fortune for the year.