Setsubun

Setsubun is a holiday celebrated in Japan whose date is determined by the Chinese calendar.  In this calendar there are four seasons and setsubun means the end of a season and the beginning of the next.  Technically, that means there are four setsubun a year, but the most celebrated one is the one marking the end of winter.  This year that event falls on today, February 3rd!

Setsubun is known as the "bean-throwing festival" since Japanese people celebrate by throwing handfuls of mame (soybeans) out the front door of their house calling out "Oni-wa soto!" or "devils out".  Then they step outside the house, turn around, throw another handful of beans into the house and yell, "Fuku-wa uchi!" or "good luck into the house".

Throwing out the beans.

Throwing the beans in.

These were the packets of mame I bought from the Japanese store.  There were soybean and peanut ones.  Came with the mask and all!



Japanese kids supposedly run around with "oni" (devil masks) on pretending to be the evil spirits.  London made one in culture class so he could participate.

Cannon modeling London's mask.

Emmy

London

After you throw all the beans, you're supposed to eat one bean for every year of your life, plus one extra for the coming year.  I figured out that we would need 104 beans in our house!

The next part of the tradition we won't be participating in: to keep the devils out families will hang heads of grilled sardines outside their front door.  Think I'll just stick with the soybeans...