Neither 'mochitsuki' nor 'joya no kane' is essential to people’s lives, but the events enrich lives and support spiritually affluent lives. Within the area reached by the peals of a temple bell, there

Puts on rose-coloured glasses ... Ah, yes, Campbell is right.

I can't help but feel that such events only get cancelled when the people involved just lose interest.

I mean, who is really complaining about the noise on that one night (when many people are up and at temples anyway) and how many actual cases of norovirus have resulted from mochi-making?

Where there is a serious issue, of course things should be cancelled, but sometimes it just sounds like a convenient excuse.

who is really complaining

I think the same people who is pushing X'mas/Valentine's/Halloween/many many more for decades.

If there's no problem, there's no problem. If there is a problem -- and there is, clearly -- then saying there is no problem or trying to ignore it with sentiment and nostalgia as well as impracticality, then it's just plain stupid to continue. There is FAR too much of this mentality in Japan: "Well, when I was young it was fun and brought us together, so despite the norovirus, people not wanting to do it, the fact that it's barbaric, the meat is full of poison these days, there may be radiation, children are suffering nerve damage from the pyramids, or whatever other permanent or debilities or dangers we want to gloss over that may result, it'll make us feel bad if we stop and don't force those with concerns to continue!"

I love mochi-making -- it's fun, and it does indeed bring people together in some respects -- but if people are in danger and/or getting sick as a result, every time, then it's time to find another way to communicate and bring people together. For people who demand that the past be forgotten in many cases, they sure want to cling to nostalgia and the "old ways". Find something else. I also feel bad that the temple bell ceremony is causing noise complaints and people have to stop, but again, you can't keep doing it just because "we've been doing it for a long time" if people are unhappy about it and it is creating REAL problems. Do it the next day, or else ring it once to mean 50 times or something. People stopped eating beans the equivalent of their age on Setsubun and started counting one to represent 10 years because eating too many made them full or feel sick; but no one's complaining about that 'catastrophic attack on culture', are they?

Think outside the box, people, and change with the times where necessary -- and illness IS something avoidable in the cases mentioned in the quotation.

That is sad. Much more fun than Japanese Christmas Chicken and Cake.

The standard for "making too much noise" is so uneven in this country. Peaceful temple bells on New Year's night? Bad. Full-volume speaker trucks, politicians' microphones, and the drums and whistles to rehearse for the upcoming Sports Festival at the local elementary school? Perfectly acceptable.