Midnight: the Japanese New Year

The joya-no-kane, the bell rung on New Year's Eve, is said to derive from the 'hundred and eight bells' of Song-dynasty China and to have taken root in Japanese temples in the medieval period. The number 108 is commonly said to be the number of earthly desires, and ringing the bell is said to clear them away before the new year.

How and when the bell is rung varies by temple; many are said to strike it 107 times in the old year and the final time after midnight.

Setsubun, the eve of the first day of spring, has its own rite of purification. Tsuina, the driving out of pestilence, derives from the Chinese dà nuó; the Shoku Nihongi shows it was practised in Japan by 706. By the Nanboku-chō period there are records of beans being thrown to the words 'Demons out, fortune in'.

Because Setsubun is fixed by the start of spring, its date moves; in 2021 it fell on February 2 for the first time in 124 years. Pausing at the seams of the seasons to purify one's surroundings — that sensibility still lives in the calendar.