All about the kanji, part 6: 年

Illustration: Beans being thrown at an oni, a demon, for good luck in the Lunar New Year.
This kanji means 'year' and so it's often found wherever a date appears, e.g. 2009年10月12日. Note that the Japanese use both the Common Era (CE) year, which is currently 2009, and the year of the reign of the current Japanese emperor, which is now 平成21年, or the 21st year of the 平成 (pronounced へいせい) era. 平成 is not the name of the Emperor, though, that would be Akihito. This year is also the Year of the Cow.
We know two pronunciations for 年: the kun reading とし (as e.g. in ことし　(今年), meaning 'this year') and the on reading　ねん (as e.g. in らいねん (来年), 'next year'; it's also the counter word for years). Note that さい, as in 'years old', is a completely different kanji, and that 年 rarely means something else than 'year'.
Some interesting compounds are 一昨年 (pronounced おととし) and 昨年 (pronounced さくねん), meaning 'the year before last' and 'last year', respectively. The kanji 昨 is the same one used with the first kanji we learned, and in the same way.
Combined with the kanji we already know, we get the following combinations:

• 一年中 (いちねんじゅう), 'all year round', analogous with 一日中 (いちにちじゅう) 'throughout the day'
• 年会 (ねんかい), conference or annual convention