Japanese festivals
'pochibukuro,' similar to Goshugi bukuro or Chinese red envelopes and to the Scottish
handsel. In the Edo period large stores and wealthy families gave out a small bag of mochi
and a Mandarin orange to spread happiness all around. The amount of money given depends
on the age of the child but is usually the same if there is more than one child so that no one
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
annaabi.ee 
