Japan rings in New Year with tuna and a cold bath

By Jon Herskovitz

TOKYO, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Take an ice-cold bath, shake your backside, or offer cash to a giant tuna -- Japan has cast aside Y2K worries to embark on a host of traditional celebrations to ring in the New Year.

Fear of the Year 2000 computer bug kept millions of workers close to the office over the first weekend of the year, but now the panic is over, celebrations both old and new await a much-relieved nation.

Thousands of revellers made monetary offerings to a 288-kilogram (635-lb) tuna at a shrine in western Nishinomiya, a ceremony that is believed will lead to a good catch and a prosperous business year.

The festivities to open the New Year are numerous and typically born of local legend and practise, often dating back hundreds of years.

Almost a century old himself, spritely Shinto priest Masamitsu Nakagawa, 92, stripped down to a loin cloth and led scores of others into an ice-cold bath at Tokyo's Teppozunari Shrine on Sunday.

Legend has it that the bath and a prayer in the shrine's frigid waters ensure good health for participants in the year ahead.

For the fleet of foot, there was the ``Lucky Man of the Year'' run at a shrine near the western Japan city of Kobe. About 800 participants sprinted down a narrow, winding path from the shrine's main gate in order to be the first to arrive at the main altar.

The shrine dash is part of a tradition that dates back between 800 and 1,000 years, a priest at Nishinomiya Shrine said.

Other ways to ensure good fortune for the year include climbing to the rafters of a temple in the ancient capital of Kyoto or taking a four-hour walk through the snow in a northern city with a sacred piece of paper in one's mouth.

In southwestern Kokura, locals turn things around with a ``backwards festival'' that is supposed to undo bad fortune.

Participants shake their backsides in a tail dance ritual while others perform actions in reverse in comical skits.

HAPPY MONDAYS FOR ALL

The majority of Japanese, however, were enjoying a new tradition born this year called ``Happy Monday.''

Starting in 2000, two national holidays have been changed from their traditional calendar date to a set Monday in January and October in order to give people three-day weekends.

On Monday, airports and railroad stations were jammed with passengers taking advantage of their first Happy Monday. Concerns of the Y2K bug caused a decline in travel during the typically busy New Year's season.

This year Coming of Age Day -- a day to honour those who attain the legal adult age of 20 during the year -- was moved to the second Monday in January from its traditional January 15 date.

The adults-to-be dressed in kimonos and suits to mark the day, while a hearty few took the plunge with a purifying ice water bath.

-- Edward R. (somewhere@the.morrow), January 10, 2000