December 31st is the day of great darkness.
After eating New Year's soba, the shrine gradually became lively.
Because they had to guard against Orugu's trouble in previous years, Tidom and the Fang Rangers rarely had the opportunity to participate in festival celebrations.
So, Shen Yun took advantage of the first day of the New Year to open the door for various small vendors in nearby towns and let the New Year celebrations be held directly in the shrine.
At nine o'clock in the evening, many small vendors who had finished eating soba noodles at home had already come to the shrine and set up their stalls.
In addition, some tourists who came to visit the shrine early made the entire shrine extremely lively.
"By the way, is it really okay for us to be lazy like this?" Tidom was wearing a white thick kimono with a circle of white fluff on the collar and a lavender peony pattern painted on the clothes. It looked like a cluster of flowers and was very beautiful.
She wore a wide purple belt around her waist, and her shoulder-length blonde hair was combed into a bun, which was fixed with a peacock-tail-shaped hairpin, making her look intellectual and elegant.
"What does it matter? Just think of it as a tour in the shrine." Shen Yun said with a smile.
Although it is okay to follow local customs during festivals, there is no need to wear a kimono.
"Also, I have arranged for staff to replace their work at any time."
I have to say that the Shumagia are really very useful beasts of burden, and can do almost any job that humans can do.
"Okay~" Tidom looked at the lively New Year celebration, decisively put other things behind him, and lingered happily in front of these stalls.
"Wow~ It's sweet wine!" When Tidom saw the stall selling sweet wine, he pulled Shen Yun to the stall with a look of surprise.
Amazake is a traditional Japanese drink that is very suitable for drinking in both summer and winter, and is a drink suitable for people of all ages.
There are two types of amazake. One is the traditional rice koji amazake, which is completely non-alcoholic.
The other type is sake lees amazake, which contains only a very small amount of alcohol, even less than 1%.
Especially in autumn and winter, you can often see stalls selling amazake at festivals and shrine festivals.
"Isn't this Lord Palace Administrator? I'd like to invite you to drink, please don't be polite." The owner of the stall was a middle-aged man. When he saw Tidom pulling Shen Yun to his stall, he smiled warmly.
The chief priest is the highest person in charge of the shrine, responsible for the operation, management and coordination of the shrine's sacrifices.
"No, you still have to pay." Shen Yun shook his head and put a thousand-yuan bill on the stall.
"Please wait a moment, I'll heat it up for you." The boss took the banknotes and quickly poured two glasses of milky white sweet wine from the barrel. After heating it a little, he handed the two glasses of sweet wine to the two men.
"It smells so good~" Tidom took the paper cup, sniffed it gently, and said.
The aroma of amazake becomes more intense when heated.
Drinking a sip of hot amazake on a cold winter day will warm your whole body.
Seeing Tidom's craving for wine, Shen Yun found it a little funny, but he didn't stop him.
It's just an alcoholic drink anyway, it's okay to drink as much as you want.
"Hmm, so sweet!" Tidom took a sip of the hot sweet wine at just the right temperature, looking very enjoyable.
The two stopped for a while in front of the amazake stall, letting Tidom drink a few cups of hot amazake to warm himself up, and then continued to wander around the shrine.
After a while, the two of them arrived at the fortune-telling area of the shrine.
The divine fortune stick is an item that is available in both shrines and temples.
There are already many tourists asking for fortune at the place where they draw lots.
The price of drawing the fortune sticks is not expensive, only 100-200 yen, but if there are many people visiting, it can be a considerable income for the shrine or temple.
"Mr. Shen, what is the probability of drawing an unlucky fortune from our shrine's divine fortune sticks?" Tidom asked curiously, taking a bite of an apple candy.
"I have prepared ten kinds of fortune sticks: very lucky, good, moderately lucky, slightly lucky, half lucky, not very lucky, not very slightly lucky, unlucky, slightly unlucky, and very unlucky. The probability of drawing an unlucky lot is three in ten. If you really draw an unlucky lot, you can only blame yourself for being unlucky." Shen Yun said.
Please, he's already trying so hard to get tourists to draw lucky numbers, he can't just not give out any unlucky numbers, right? That would be too fake.
"It's about a one-third chance, which is not a small probability." Tidom said.
"What should I do if I draw a bad lot?"
There was no such custom in the Heian period a thousand years ago. At most, the nobles would ask Grandma Murasaki to tell their fortunes.
"Here. That's it." Shen Yun pointed to a straw rope not far away, where many fortune sticks were tied together, and said, "Whether the fortune sticks you draw are good or bad, you can actually take them home or tie them up somewhere. But people usually take the good fortune sticks home and leave the bad fortune sticks at the temple or shrine."
"I see~"
The two of them stayed briefly at the place where they were drawing fortunes, then turned around and strolled to the front of the social affairs office.
In the social office, Ohkawa Sae was wearing the classic red and white shrine maiden costume, with her smooth black hair tied up with a red ribbon. She had the elegance of a shrine maiden and the vitality of a young girl.
"Thank you for your patronage!" Ohkawa Sae smiled and bowed to thank the tourists who bought the amulets.
Amulets are unique Japanese amulets. Basically, every shrine and temple has its own unique amulets for sale, and tourists who come to worship will not be stingy and buy an amulet for themselves, their family, and their friends.
There are many types of amulets, and there are eleven common types of amulets alone.
Among these, the most people buy items related to study, career, love, peace, luck, etc.
The most important thing is that the amulet is only valid for one year and will become useless after one year.
If it is an amulet for study, career, safe delivery, love, luck, etc., it will be invalid once the result comes out.
Expired amulets must be returned to the shrine or temple as a fulfillment of a vow.
The amulets that Shen Yun made were basically made according to the color, appearance, and abilities of the Powermon.
For example, the barking deer is grass green, and the barking deer pattern will be sewn on the amulet, representing the amulet for praying for health and the amulet for praying for recovery.
The Yawei White Tiger is mainly white with some pink tiger stripes, and has a Yawei White Tiger pattern sewn on it, representing a love and marriage amulet.
As for the others, Shen Yun will not give examples one by one, anyway, they cover all types on the market.
"White, leave the work to Xu Magia, and let's call the others to go to the New Year celebration." Shen Yun invited.
"Okay~" After the novelty wore off, Ohkawa Sae felt a little bored, and Shen Yun's invitation was exactly what she wanted.
"I'm going to change."
"There's no need for that. This shrine maiden costume suits White very well." Shen Yun praised.
"Okay." Ohkawa Sae smiled brightly.
The three of them left the community office, called others, and started to play around in the shrine happily.
As time approaches midnight, the shrine becomes more and more lively.
"10, 9, 8..."
When the time reached 23:59, the tourists in the shrine suddenly started counting down in unison.
“3, 2, 1!”
"call out--"
As the countdown ended, a colorful light rose rapidly into the air with a sound of breaking through the air.
"Bang!"
The colorful fluorescent light emitted a loud roar in the air, and a colorful 'flower' bloomed in the air.
This firework is like a signal.
Next, one after another brilliant fireworks bloomed in the night sky of Sanguo Mountain.
Colorful fireworks bloomed in the night sky like flowers scattered by fairies, interweaving and overlapping with each other.
The brilliant colors illuminate the shrine like daylight.
"Happy New Year!" Shen Yun looked at the people around him and congratulated them.
"Next year, let's get together like this to celebrate the New Year, how about that?" Ohkawa Sae looked back at everyone and said with a smile.
"Of course."
"Mr. Shen, Happy New Year!" Tidom smiled and extended his hand to Shen Yun.
"Red envelopes, right? Everything, everything." Shen Yun was well prepared. He took out a stack of red envelopes and gave one to everyone present.
"Me too?" The great god Yue Mo scratched his head. He was already a thousand years old, but he didn't expect to receive a red envelope.
"We can't ask Silver to give us red envelopes." Shen Yun joked.
"This year is the same as every year. Inside is a check for 5 million yen. Spend it as you like."
"Doctor on board!" (End of this chapter)