(I wanted to write about cleaning at the beginning of the Lenten Season, but I was having trouble posting to my blog at that time. I'm trying again to post today and will then add a new post if this works)
Americans make New Year’s resolutions. Japanese do o-souji, cleaning that is!
Literally, it means free and clean. It refers to the year-end cleaning Japanese do. Not just a little nea
tening up. Hands-and-knees, sweat-equity scrubbing, sweeping, waxing and buffing so they enter the new year ready for whatever awaits them. It's big business too! In the month of December, even Hello Kitty gets in the picture! More broadly, it refers to the custom of getting your affairs squared away before Dec. 31. That means paying all overdue bills, performing any obligations yet unmet and metaphorically purifying yourself. We move, if we follow the Oriental calendar, from one Year to the next.
tening up. Hands-and-knees, sweat-equity scrubbing, sweeping, waxing and buffing so they enter the new year ready for whatever awaits them. It's big business too! In the month of December, even Hello Kitty gets in the picture! More broadly, it refers to the custom of getting your affairs squared away before Dec. 31. That means paying all overdue bills, performing any obligations yet unmet and metaphorically purifying yourself. We move, if we follow the Oriental calendar, from one Year to the next."Hungry for Words" writes: In the west, at the start of spring is the time to do a big cleaning. In Japan, (o-souji), which literally does mean ‘big cleaning’, is at the end of the year. O-souji i
s not just about getting the house in order before relatives and friends come over on New Year’s Day. It has a spiritual and religious significance.
s not just about getting the house in order before relatives and friends come over on New Year’s Day. It has a spiritual and religious significance. I was talking with a friend yesterday, explaining a little bit of this to her, and how after living in Japan for so many years I began to look at spring cleaning more as my o-souji! Meaning that I have found more spiritual and religious significance to it than just the spring cleaning I was brought up with stateside. I've blended it a bit more with my Christian life and here is the outcome:
Liturgically, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Clean Monday marks the beginning of Lent—and thus Lent itself—begins on the preceding (Sunday) night, at a very moving and special service called Forgiveness Vespers, which culminates with the Ceremony of Mutual Forgiveness, where all present will bow down before one another and ask forgiveness. 
In this way, the faithful begin Lent with a clean conscience, with forgiveness, and with renewed Christian love. This first day of Great Lent is called “Clean Monday” because Christians are called upon to begin the holy season with “clean hearts and good intentions.” It is also because the season of Lent is regarded as a time when Christians should clean up their spiritual house; coming to terms with their lives and rededicating themselves to a more holy and righteous way of living. The entire first week of Great Lent is often referred to as "Clean Week," and it is customary to go to Confession during this week, and to clean their own home thoroughly. The theme of Clean Monday is set by the Old Testament reading appointed to be read at the Sixth Hour on this day (Isaiah 1:1-20), which says in part:"Wash yourselves and ye shall be clean; put away the wicked ways from your souls before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well. Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, consider the fatherless, and plead for the widow. Come then, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow; and though they be red like crimson, I will make them white as wool (v. 16-18).
In this way, the faithful begin Lent with a clean conscience, with forgiveness, and with renewed Christian love. This first day of Great Lent is called “Clean Monday” because Christians are called upon to begin the holy season with “clean hearts and good intentions.” It is also because the season of Lent is regarded as a time when Christians should clean up their spiritual house; coming to terms with their lives and rededicating themselves to a more holy and righteous way of living. The entire first week of Great Lent is often referred to as "Clean Week," and it is customary to go to Confession during this week, and to clean their own home thoroughly. The theme of Clean Monday is set by the Old Testament reading appointed to be read at the Sixth Hour on this day (Isaiah 1:1-20), which says in part:"Wash yourselves and ye shall be clean; put away the wicked ways from your souls before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well. Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, consider the fatherless, and plead for the widow. Come then, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow; and though they be red like crimson, I will make them white as wool (v. 16-18).Clean Monday is a public holiday in some countries such as Greece and Cyprus, where it is celebrated with outdoor excursions, the consumption of shellfish and other fasting food, and the widespread custom of flying kites. Eating meat, eggs and dairy products is traditionally forbidden to Orthodox Christians throughout Lent, with fish being eaten only on major feast days, but shellfish is permitted. This has created the tradition of eating elaborate dishes based on seafood (shellfish, mollusks, fish roe etc). The happy, springtime atmosphere of Clean Monday may seem at odds with the Lenten spirit of repentance and self-control, but this seeming contradiction is a marked aspect of the Orthodox approach to fasting, in accordance with the Gospel lesson (Matthew 6:14-21) read on the morning before, which admonishes:"When ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret... (v. 16-18)."In this manner, the Orthodox celebrate the fact that "The springtime of the Fast has dawned, the flower of repentance has begun to open..."
Ideally, what I like to do is begin cleaning just as soon as Meat Fare Week begins and have a final "big cleaning" during the first week of Lent. This helps to set the tone for Lent and keep me free of the distraction for needing to do a lot of housework during the Lenten Season. Once the Paschal (Easter) Season begins, my home is fresh and clean, ready for the new year and all that awaits me. (This is the goal) One day (or year, as it were) I will fully succeed in my quest!
Will you join me this year in "A Big Cleaning?"
