Today I learned about the Mass for Broken Needles, a Japanese tradition where women take all the needles that they’ve broken to temples to be blessed and thanked for the work they did.

Japan’s throwaway culture can rival that of any Western country, but at the Sensoji temple in central Tokyo, dozens of women in jewel-coloured kimonos honoured their broken tools with the 400-year-old rite….
…”Sometimes there are painful things and secrets that women can’t tell men, and they put these secrets into the pins and ask the gods to get rid of them,” he added.

I don’t remember breaking any needles this year but if I did I’m sure I swore and threw them out instead of thanking them for working hard for me. I burned some incense in my sewing room today as an offering of thanks for my tools. It is a good lesson to remember.