Japanese New Year Food Meanings. At the beginning, osechi was quite simple food — vegetables boiled in soy sauce and vinegar — but over the centuries, more and more types of food were added to the osechi ryori lineup, turning it into a much more elaborate affair. Japanese new year (shogatsu or oshogatsu) is the most important holiday in japan.it’s centered around food, family, preparing for the new year and leaving the prior year in the past.
Since it was historically taboo to cook on new year’s day, osechi dishes are typically stewed with lots of sugar, or they are vinegared to preserve them. The first of which is quite simple: Eating traditional new year's food.
Osechi ryori_ (お節料理) is a subset of japanese cuisine made up of dishes that are traditionally eaten on oshogatsu (new year’s).
The first of which is quite simple: In japan, toshikoshi soba is the traditional new year’s food of choice. The most common, although its popularity is waning a little, is osechi ryori, a traditional cuisine that has been around since the heian era that began in 794.osechi ryori is a sort of eclectic collection of small cold dishes, each denoting a special meaning and wish for. As a result, japanese food evolved into a unique culinary tradition.