There seem to appear more and more New Year’s celebrations in my continously enriching cultural life: the Western Calendar New Year’s of January 1st, just past. Then there has been Losar, the Tibetan New Year, which is always a bit later – this year it falls on February 12th. And for the last couple of years, Shogatsu – a celebration of the Japanese New Year.
The Halifax event is called Ko-shogatsu, ‘Ko’ meaning ‘little. This annual celebration here in Halifax, put on by the Japanese and Canadian Cultural Exchange Society of St. Mary’s University, in conjunction with the Consulate General of Japan at Montreal, is open to the public, and all are welcome! If you want to know what to expect, you can read an article from a few years ago in the The Commoner. This year, the celebration will be held on Sunday, January 27th, in the Loyola Building, Room 290. There are generally a series of lovely demonstrations of various Japanese art forms and cultural offerings.
The Halifax Kozan Kyudo Group will again be offering a purification of the four directions for the celebration. Maybe we’ll see you there!