プログレッシブ和英中辞典(第4版)の解説
じょや【除夜】
New Year's Eve
除夜の鐘
Beginning around midnight on New Year's Eve, the great hanging bells found in Buddhist temples all over Japan are simultaneously tolled exactly 108 times. The tolling of the bells on New Year's Eve is called Joya no kane. Each strike represents the renunciation of one of the 108 earthly desires of human beings so that it is possible to begin the New Year afresh.（意訳；除夜（大晦日）の12時を挟んで全国の寺で一斉に108回鐘をつく．これを除夜の鐘という．108あるとされる人間の煩悩を取り除き，新年を迎えるという意味がある）