Why do we get a New Year's gift at New Year's?
The New Year's gift has a long history, and this has a special meaning that has been passed down from generation to generation. In the past, most Japanese people believed in God. They believed that God would come to each house on New Year's Day, the first day of the year.
It is for this god that we decorate and make offerings at New Year's. The god who comes to a house at New Year's gives a "new soul" to the people of the house in return for the offerings. The god who comes to a house on New Year's Day gives a "new soul" to the people of the house in return for the offerings they made. New souls received from God. They believed that thanks to this new soul, people would be able to live another year in good health.
People in the past really believed in this kind of thing. And the New Year's gift was a new soul given by God.
In other words, in the old days, the New Year's gift was something you received from God, and it was something invisible.
There is a reason why it has been replaced by money as it is now, and why only children can receive it.
In the old days, only the head of the family could receive New Year's money from God. In other words, it was mostly fathers. Therefore, fathers gave the invisible New Year's gift to their children in the form of money or souvenirs.
This is the beginning of the present New Year's gift.
