Hundreds of Japanese flocked to a Shinto shrine on the last day of 2009 to attend a ritual ceremony, to purify body and mind before the new year.

Some 300 people gathered in Tokyo’s Meiji Shrine, to brush off evil spirits they got over the last year.

The “Oharai” or the “ritual of purification” is an annual ceremony on the last day of the year at most Shinto shrines across Japan. The ritual is believed to remove sin, bad luck, disease and guilt.

[Yasuhito Ono, Skateboard Designer]:
"I heard the brushing-off ritual gets rid of all the harmful energy from my body.”

The ritual ceremony was led by 27 Shinto priests, who shook the branch of an evergreen tree over prayers' heads to "brush-off" evil.

[Huyuka Kikuchi, Student]:
“I wish that God brushes off all the evil spirits from me before New Year's day.”

Meiji Shrine is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken.   

More than three million people visited the shrine during the last New Year's three-day holidays.   

Japan's New Year's holidays are the most important in the year and most companies are closed for a week during the period.