2017 new year has come in Japan with the latest bells in the Buddhist temples of the country. In Japan in contrast to China, where he came 12 animal symbols of the year of the Cock comes into its own at the end of January, and from the first seconds of the calendar year.
According to the custom in most churches of the first 107 beats sound still in the old year, the last the 108th blow falls on the first seconds of the new year. The bells purify a person and the world before the coming of misery, unworthy acts and thoughts. There are different explanations for this number of beats.
The number 108 in Buddhism, traditionally considered to be sacred. One explanation is the arithmetic: each of the senses, which in Japanese Buddhism include sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and thoughts (intent and will also appear in this character), are able to feel pleasant, unpleasant and neutral. Thus, six multiplied by three and you get 18. This number is multiplied by two – the clean and unclean, turns 36. 36 then multiply it into three – past, present and future life, in the end it turns out 108.
The Buddhist concept of the four sufferings and eight attachments and suffering – “blackjack-Haqq” — is the basis of another explanation for the 108 strikes of the bell. Four sufferings – birth, sickness, old age and death — give the number four. Nine of the sufferings and affections, which in Japanese Buddhism, in addition to the traditional five groups of attachments – material form, feeling, idea-imagination, action and will, understanding — added the suffering of separation from a loved one, the suffering of meeting with hatred and anger and suffering from the inability to get what you want. The character “suffering” sounds like “ku”, which gives the reading of the four sufferings and eight attachments homonymous combination of numbers 4, 9 and 8.9. When multiplying 4 by 9 and add with the product of 8 and 9 obtained 108.
The rooster every morning, and which proclaims the beginning of a new day, is a good symbol, glorifying the end of the night and dark time. In addition, it is associated with the legend of the Golden bird (in the Russian tradition the Firebird) who brings wealth and prosperity. The year of the Rooster should be fruitful due to the ability of chickens to lay eggs.
For many Japanese, the first Association with the year of the Rooster is the word “habataku” — fly, noisy waving of wings. It implies a desire to attract attention, to make something bright, unusual, and … fly up in the sky in the quest to catch up with his dream – despite the fact that the cock can not fly.
