Carpe Diem #888 Hatsuhikari (first light of the sun)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of Carpe Diem and welcome at the first post for 2016. I hope you all have had a wonderful New Year's Eve and a great start of 2016. I am still in the nightshift, so I have celebrated new year with my colleagues at the hospital. Of course we have celebrated it also with our patients.

Okay ... this month it's all about "classic meets modern" in which I have made a "cocktail" of classical and modern kigo (or seasonwords). Kigo are words which point toward a season and its one of the "rules" of haiku that every haiku has a kigo in it. For example: "snow" is a kigo for winter and "tulips" is a kigo for spring.

In our first episode of 2016 I have a nice kigo for winter for your inspiration, Hatsuhikari (first light of the sun), Let me give you a little explanation ...

January is the first month of a year. The meaning of the word, "the first" gives us a new and strong impression. Accordingly, the arrival of a new year makes us feel ourselves refreshed. And also we are conscious that all the things surrounding us come to be fresh.
It is supposed that perhaps the Japanese people have respected all the creations as to be pure and to be revived in the New Year, and have made up their mind to start their own new life with a new resolution. Through pious praying, they strongly hope to be happy and to lead a full life in the new year by clearing up the past which they could not be satisfied with.
The Japanese put hatsu onto the words of nature, such as Hatsuhi(first Sun), Hatsuzora(first sky), Hatsuhikari(first light of the Sun) so as to express their respect to Nature of the New Year.

 

 

I remember that we have had somewhere at the start of Carpe Diem also a prompt "first light", and I remember that I had used a wonderful photo of a winter morning, the above one.

 

winter morning
first light of the sun … so fragile
reflects in the snow

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 4th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, desire for spring, later on.