Japanese festivals
feels slighted.
Mochi
Another custom is creating rice cakes (, mochi?). Boiled sticky rice (, mochigome?) is put
into a wooden shallow bucket-like container and patted with water by one person while
another person hits it with a large wooden mallet. Mashing the rice, it forms a sticky white
dumpling. This is made before New Year's Day and eaten during the beginning of January.
Mochi is made into a New Year's decoration called kagami mochi (?), formed from two
round cakes of mochi with a bitter orange (, daidai?) placed on top. The name daidai is
supposed to be auspicious since it means "several generations."
Because of mochi's extremely sticky texture, there is usually a small number of choking
deaths around New Year in Japan, particularly amongst the elderly. The death toll is reported
in newspapers in the days after New Year
Poetry
The New Year traditions are also a part of Japanese poetry, including haiku and renga
annaabi.ee 
