What 🎍 means
A kadomatsu: Japan's traditional New Year door decoration. The name means "gate pine". Three bamboo poles cut on a slant to different heights stand in a bundle of pine branches, often with a sprig of plum blossom, bound with straw rope. Real ones stand in pairs, one each side of an entrance, outside houses, shops, offices and temples.
The decoration is not just pretty. In Japanese tradition it marks the house as ready to receive the toshigami, the deity of the new year who brings a good harvest and good fortune to the family. Pine stays green all winter and stands for long life; bamboo grows fast and straight and stands for strength and growth; plum blooms in the cold and stands for vitality. The three together are a classic Japanese set of lucky plants called shōchikubai, pine-bamboo-plum.
The emoji came into Unicode with the first batch of Japanese mobile-carrier emoji, which is why a decoration most of the world has never seen sits next to 🎄 and 🎃 in every emoji keyboard.
What does it mean when someone sends 🎍?
A Happy New Year wish, Japanese style. Japanese users pair it with あけましておめでとう (akemashite omedetō, "Happy New Year") or 謹賀新年, and with the other symbols of the season: the first sunrise 🌅, mochi rice cakes, sake 🍶 and the Japanese flag 🎌. Fans of Japan, people who have lived there and anyone sending greetings to Japanese friends use it the same way.
Its season is short. Real kadomatsu go up in the last days of December, after Christmas, and come down after matsu no uchi, the New Year period that ends on 7 January in most of Japan and on 15 January in some western regions. Outside that window, the emoji usually just means "Japan" or "bamboo": a Japan trip, a garden, a panda joke. No holiday words around it means no holiday meaning.
Warm, festive and traditional; fine for family, friends and business greetings alike in Japan.
Not a Lunar New Year symbol: Japan celebrates New Year on 1 January, so it can look odd in Chinese, Korean or Vietnamese New Year greetings.
What it means when someone sends it to you
4 readingsDon't confuse it with
3Combination ideas
3Worth knowing
- Tradition says not to put kadomatsu up on 29 December, because 29 can be read as "double suffering", nor on the 31st, when a one-night decoration is thought disrespectful to the deity.
- When the New Year period ends, kadomatsu are not thrown away: many are burned at shrine bonfires in mid-January, sending the deity off with the smoke.
Questions people ask
3Is 🎍 the bamboo emoji?
Sort of. Its official name is "pine decoration", but its shortcode is :bamboo: and many keyboards show it when you search for bamboo, as of 2026. It is the closest thing to a bamboo emoji, so people use it for bamboo too.
Can I use 🎍 for Chinese or Lunar New Year?
Better not. Kadomatsu belong to the Japanese New Year on 1 January. For Lunar New Year, 🧧 red envelopes, 🏮 lanterns and 🧨 firecrackers fit far better.
When do people send 🎍?
From the last days of December until about 7 January, the span when real kadomatsu stand by the door. Sending it on New Year's Day with a greeting is the classic use.
How to type 🎍
:bamboo:the common shortcode; support varies by platform.🎍Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.