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Setsubun – All About Japanese Devil Cleansing Day

Setsubun, demon clearing season

Setsubun (SEH-TSU-BOON) is a Japanese festival that takes place on February 3, the day before the beginning of spring in the old Japanese calendar. It has some fun traditions that go along with it. It is a day to cleanse all the evil of the previous year and to chase away all the evil spirits. This is done by “mamemaki” (MAH-MEH-MAH-KEY), or bean scattering. Kids love this.

Hunt demons or throw soybeans at daddy

Now this is fun, and you can easily see why kids love it so much. Roasted soybeans are collected and thrown around the house and out of windows. Why soy? Demons obviously can’t stand the smell, or so I’m told. Although I notice that supermarkets often sell peanuts instead of soybeans, I suspect because they are cheaper. Maybe the demons don’t like peanuts either.

In any case. Throwing the beans, people shout “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!”, which roughly means “Devils out, good luck!”. People really get into this. An old lady told me that when you throw the beans out the window, you have to make sure to close the window as quickly as possible so that the evil spirits can’t get back in! Usually the father of the house will don an Oni mask. An oni is a kind of devil or demon in Japanese mythology. The children enjoy throwing the soybeans at him and chasing him away.

eating your age

After expelling all the demons and dad from the house, everyone has to eat their age in soybeans. Easy enough for kids, but some older folks I’ve talked to complain that it’s hard to eat that many. Some areas go one more and have everyone eat their age plus one more for luck in the next year as well. The luckier the better, I say!

sushi rolls

Another more recent tradition is for everyone to face in a certain direction and eat a big, long sushi roll. The exact address changes every year according to the Chinese zodiac. This year (2010) is West South West. You are not allowed to talk while eating and once you start eating you are not allowed to pause until the sushi roll is finished. After you finish, good luck will come to you! This tradition started in western Japan (Kansai), but has since spread to most of the country due in large part to grocery stores and sushi shops that don’t mind selling more sushi rolls every February. .

conclusion

Setsubun is a fun time for everyone, and any excuse to eat a sushi roll is a good one. If you come to Japan around February, try to arrive around the 3rd so that you too can enjoy demon hunting.

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