Jyoya no kane

Jyoya-no-Kane, or midnight tolling of the temple bells consists of 108 solemn tolls on the temple bells. It usually starts 15 minutes to midnight. According to Buddhism, man has 108 sins and that by hearing the bells toll that number, he can be relieved of all of them.

As I mentioned before our house is right across from an old temple - Saijyo-ji. We got an invitation from the temple the other day to come and strike the Joya-no-Kane. Matthew and I were very excited as since we built our Japanese house this is the first time we get to join this ceremony. I was hoping Oliver will stay awake (he had almost 4 hours nap this afternoon) but he fell asleep 15 minutes before we left. My brother in-law, Goichi and Yuzuki also fell asleep so we left them behind and just took Hinata with us.

It took us 10 seconds to get to the temple!



Each of us went up the steps to strike the bell. It was very windy and extra cold tonight. There was a guy counting with lots of tokens so that there won't be more than 108 gongs - what a job!



When we finished, each of us got Buddhist prayer beads - Juzu. The temple master put a special prayer into the beads wishing for happiness and well being.



I hope we will have a great New Year - Only two more minutes till New Year!