Joya no Kane, the New Year's Eve Bell

My son rang Joya no Kane at our local Buddhist temple on New Year’s eve. This year, he was the only one who came out to ring the bell, and he had the horner of ringing the bell nearly 108 times, which is the total number of the bell ringing.

The number 108 is said to correspond with that of Bonno, or worldly desires according to Buddhism. Usually, monks ring bells 108 times to expel Bonno, but quite often they let visiting children ring the bells and the kids line up and wait for an hour for their turn and get to ring the bell just once. At our temple, the monk let the local children ring the bell. There are only three or four children in our neighborhood, so each one of them gets to ring the bell many times. This year, however, it snowed on the 31st and nobody else wanted to come out of their houses.