Osechi Ryouri is the food we eat during the New Year holidays in Japan.

It’s our custom to put small quantities of different kinds of Japanese dishes in layers of beautifully lacquered boxes, to eat with family or serve the guests visiting during the New Year holidays.

Interestingly, each dish and each ingredient have a meaning, and we can get different benefits when we eat them.

Here are some unique examples: Kuromame (beans cooked in black) to wish for health and long life, with good work until you get suntan (“kuro” means “black”); Kazunoko (marinated herring eggs) to wish for a happy family with many children represented by the many small eggs; and Kobumaki (cooked herring rolled in Konbu) which is a play of words meaning “joy” (“yorokobu”).