15th January – 睦月

小正月　（Koshougatsu）

The period putting the New Years’ decoration at home, ends on 15th January. Koshougatsu is the day to send the home coming god 歳神様(Toshigami Sama) to the sky.

Koshougatsu is the day to wish for the great harvest for the year. It is also known as 女正月(Onna-shougatsu), the resting day for the ladies who worked very hard for New year cerebration (お正月 Oshougatsu = 松の内 Matsu-no-uchi: during the Kadomatsu is displayed at home).

People decorate a tree with white and red rice cakes instead of Kadomatsu, Shime-kazari and Kagami-mochi (from blog. 1). As this decoration is immitating the rice plants with a lot rice (rice cakes), wishing for the harvest.

On 15th January, it is a tradition to eat red beans porridge. the colour of the red beans (朱色 Shuiro：Red-brown) is believed to have the power of eliminating bad lucks.

Also on this day, in order to send the god back to the sky, どんど焼き(Dondo yaki) is held (blog.6 ). Toasting mochi by the fire of dondo-yaki is told to have a luck to be healthy throughout the year.