On New Year's Eve, temple bells are struck 108 times — once for each of the earthly desires that Buddhism counts as the source of human suffering — with the last stroke falling at or just after midnight. The sound carries across whole towns and the broadcast of it from a major temple is a fixture of Japanese television.
Many temples allow visitors to take a stroke, usually by numbered ticket handed out earlier in the evening, and serve amazake in the queue.
No attendance figure applies.
The date is fixed on 31 December. It is immediately followed by hatsumōde, which is why the night of the thirty-first runs seamlessly into the busiest three days of the Japanese religious year — one quiet and one enormous, back to back.
PlanningFixed on the night of 31 December; many temples let visitors ring, often by numbered ticket.
Dates
computed from the rule
Computed from the recurrence rule we record for this entry, not copied from a listing. A date marked ~ comes from a calendar conversion and the observance may fall a day or two either side.