Toshi no Ichi

Toshi no Ichi, the Year's End Festival, was a festival that celebrated the end of the previous year and the coming of the next.
== Month of the Tiger ==
Toshi no Ichi took place the day prior to the Oshogatsu, or Festival of New Year's Day, on the twenty-eighth day of the Tiger and prepared the Empire for the coming of the new year. Toshi no Ichi, The Year’s End Festival (Tourney Storyline)
== Tengoku's Patronage ==
Participants invoked rituals meant to prepare Rokugan for the visit of the Sun, the Moon, the Fortunes, and the kami, as it was said that they looked down upon the Empire with great interest at this time, seeking something or someone worthy of their blessing and patronage. 
== Purification ==
Peasants hung a rope of straw known as the shimenawa inside their houses to ward it from the evil spirits of the previous year. These ropes were burned at the end of the festival along with the other parts of the celebration. Homes prepared a special altar covered in rice cakes and sake called toshidana, which honored the spirits of the new year. At dusk, the temples of the Brotherhood of Shinsei were emptied, and their walls and floors scrubbed cleaned with fresh water. The monks then rang the bells of the temple forty-nine times, seven times seven, for the benevolent and wrathful faces of the Seven Fortunes, and invited the peasants and the nobles back into the temples. Rokugan Campaign Setting, p. 123
== Minor Clans ==
In 1167 the gods turned their attention to an Empire that had lost its way. Though many seek enlightenment with pure hearts, an equal number have had their faith and their loyalty tested by the struggle against the Bloodspeakers, and with the trials their Emperor has faced against the Gozoku and the Shogun. With such tumult, the Celestial Heavens found the Great Clans unworthy of their favors, and turned instead to the lesser among their children, the humble samurai that served the Minor Clans. The Monkey Clan was the blessed one. The Fortunes Smile, by Brian Yoon
== External Links ==
* Toshi no Ichi (Promotional)
Category:Festivals