Hatsumode - First Shrine Visit
The tradition of visiting shrines during the first days of the New Year.
Hatsumode is the important first shrine visit of the New Year, typically made during the first three days of January. Millions visit shrines to pray for blessings in the coming year, purchase new omamori, return old ones, and draw omikuji. It marks a spiritual fresh start.
With hatsumode, we begin the New Year by honoring the kami and receiving their blessings.
Hatsumode remains one of Japan's most widely observed religious practices.
Calendar traditions
Written about in
- What Shinto says about cycles and renewal
The first shrine visit of the year is made in the opening days of January: old amulets returned, new ones taken, the year begun deliberately.
- What Shinto says about starting again after a fall
At hatsumode people return last year's omamori to the shrine and take new ones. The old protections are handed back rather than thrown away, which gives a fresh start something Shinto is good at providing: a place to put what you are finished with.