January 15, 2006.
Lunar New
Year, called ‘Koshogatsu’, is on January 15. Festivals to pray for a bountiful
harvest and banish bad spirits are held, along with fire festivals, and in some
places people put up rice cakes flowers.

In A.D. 604, the lunar calendar used in China was adopted for
use by the Japanese government. This calendar had both a lunar component which
regulated civic events and a solar component which was used for agricultural
purposes.
The new moon marked the beginning of
the official months but date discrepancies existed between official celebrations
and folk celebrations. Using the lunar calendar the New Year was to begin at the
second new moon after the winter solstice. This was the "Great New Year" or
shogatsu. At the full moon two weeks later, there was another celebration called
"Little New Year" or koshogatsu. Traditionally, these dates would occur sometime
from the end of January to the middle of February. However, when the government
adopted the Gregorian calendar, shogatsu became associated with the first day of
January and koshogatsu fell on the 15th of January.