初詣（はつもうで、hatsumoude）
- New Year shrine visit

初詣 (はつもうで) refers to the first visit to a Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple of the New Year. It's a significant cultural tradition in Japan. People go to pray for good fortune, health, and happiness in the upcoming year. This typically takes place during the first few days of January. 初詣 is a time for making wishes and expressing gratitude. The purpose is to greet the new year with a positive mindset and seek blessings for the year ahead.

⚫︎新年は、家族みんなで初詣に行きました。 Translation: In the New Year, my family and I all went to a shrine for the first visit of the year. ⚫︎初詣に、新しいお守りを買いました。 Translation: I bought a new amulet at the first shrine visit of the year. ⚫︎大晦日は家で過ごし、元旦に初詣に行きました。 Translation: I spent New Year's Eve at home and went to the shrine for the first visit of the year on New Year's Day.

You can use 初詣 when talking about the traditional New Year's visit to a shrine or temple. It's a standard and widely understood term. You can use it when discussing your plans for the New Year, describing what you did during the New Year's holiday, or talking about the general custom of visiting a shrine or temple at the beginning of the year. The word is used as a noun.

初詣 is written in kanji as 初詣, and the reading is はつもうで (in hiragana). There are no other common ways to write this word. The okurigana (送りがな - suffix hiragana) is always で.

There aren't many direct synonyms, but phrases describing the act of going to a shrine or temple for New Year's blessings can be used, such as 新年の参拝 (shinnen no sanpai - New Year's visit).

There are no direct antonyms for 初詣 because it is a specific cultural activity.

今年も初詣に行って、健康を祈りました。 ・Translation: This year too, I went to the shrine for the first visit of the year and prayed for good health. ・Explanation: This sentence describes going to a shrine at the beginning of the year and the purpose of the visit.

週末に初詣に行く予定です。 ・Translation: I plan to go to the shrine for the first visit of the year on the weekend. ・Explanation: This sentence explains the speaker's plans to participate in the tradition of 初詣.

The word 初 (hatsu) means "first" or "new," and 詣で (mōde) is the noun form of the verb 詣でる (mōderu), which means "to visit" or "to pay a visit to a shrine or temple." So, 初詣 literally means "the first visit" or "the first shrine visit" of the year.