KAGAMI BIRAKI
What do you think it is?
It's piled up 2 round rice cakes with a small orange on the top.
We call it "KAGAMI MOCHI".
"KAGAMI" means a mirror, and "MOCHI" means a rice cake.
The rice cake is shaped like a flat round mirror and that's the reason why it is called "KAGAMI MOCHI".
In order to welcome toshi gami sama ( the Year God ),
"KAGAMI MOCHI" is put at toko no ma ( alcove ), kami dana ( household Shinto altar ), the entrance
and so on before the New Year comes.
And then,
the event called "KAGAMI BIRAKI" is held on January 11th.
The literal translation is mirror opening ceremony.
Traditionally,
we break KAGAMI MOCHI into small pieces with the hammer, and eat as
o zoni ( おぞうに ) ,which is a soup with rice cake and vegetables
or
o shiru ko ( おしるこ ), which is a sweet bean paste soup with rice cake
In this ceremony,
"mirror" represents happiness and peacefulness, and "opening" means infinite extension of possibility.
By eating mochi of "KAGAMI MOCHI", we pray to live long happily.
Maybe because of this tradition,
the average life span of the Japanese is long !?