Osoji: Year end clean-up
Saturday, December 20th 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Why do we clean? The dojo is a sacred place because it represents our inner world. To clean the dojo is to set things right and remove the dust from ourselves. Therefore every day, the dojo is cleaned in some way by the seniors before practice begins and ends with it being cleaning by everyone.
This Saturday is Osoji or year end clean-up where we take apart and clean the entire dojo top to bottom. In Japan, a lot of preparation is required to meet the coming New Year properly. Superstitiously, the Japanese believe that the spirits of their deceased relatives and the gods of luck and fortune visit them around the time of the end of the year. Your ancestors, like the gods and spirits, bring blessing of happiness and prosperity when they are venerated with cleanliness, order and offerings. To be prepared, Japanese people, "get their houses in order" by cleaning and arranging and setting out traditional symbols like shimenawa, kadomatsu and kagami mochi.
Lets all work together to rid the dojo and ourselves of the dust we have accumulated over the year so that we can have a fresh start and enjoy all the happiness and prosperity of 2015.