Koto YoKa

Traditional Japanese Important Months

8th of December is traditionally, paired up with 8th of February, an important festival in Japan.

It is called Koto YoKa.

Koto means “thing” and YoKa means “the 8th day” or “8 days”.

Gods’ Working Days

On 8th of December, Japanese Gods start preparing for the new year, and on 8th February, they finish the work.If you think of the Old Testament, God starts creating things on the day 1, and finishing off on day 6, our Koto YoKa may be understood similarly, just not in 6 days, but in 60 days, and it is repeated every year.

What we do in modern times on 8th December

We start clearing up things on 8th December; cleaning, washing, gardening, accounting, and all things you want to finish up by the 31st of December.

Then we welcome the new year for the whole month of January, that can be compared to Christian Twelfth Night, just not for 12, but for 48 days.

And traditionally we would start usual daily humdrum life on 9th of February. But of course, these days, we start working on the 4th of January.

Clean Up!

Maybe you could start finishing what you aim at the beginning of this year?