Omikuji tossed for New Year’s luck

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:29 JST, December 18, 2022

A shinto ritual has been held at Gokoku shrine in Niigata to raise the luck of visitors through the omikuji fortune slips they may receive on their first shrine visit in the New Year.

The shrine started the mikujiage ritual in 2020 in an effort to lift the spirits and fortunes of those feeling down amid the spread of the novel coronavirus.

On Friday, about 20 shrine maidens threw up into the air some 50,000 omikuji slips as they called out, “Let’s raise them, let’s raise them, let’s raise the omikuji.”

“We invested our wish into the omikuji that next year will be a good and bright year,” said the shrine’s priest.