Early Jan 2024
- This event has passed.
Dondo-yaki is the ritual from the Heian era typically held on the 15 January. New year ornaments, amulets, and kakizome—the first customary calligraphy or picture drawn—are burnt, often at the Shinto Shrines around the country, to send off the toshigami (the god of New Year) and look forward to the future. Dondo-yaki is the proper way to dispose of the New Year decorations—throwing them in the trash would only beckon bad luck. For many, it is the single event that truly draws a line with the past year and the present.