Today, the 3rd of February, is Setsubun (literally meaning "sectional separation"). It is the eve before the last day of cold weather, or the first day of spring as noted in the Japanese Lunar calendar. On this night households partake in a ceremony called mame-maki, or soybean throwing. Someone, usually the papa of the family, wears a scary oni mask. While he’s pelted with the soybeans, other shout "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" meaning something like "Out with the oni and in with fortune to our home!" Oni, a demon of evil, highly resembles the caricature of the devil in Christianity. I find this oddly coincidental and someday will do the research to understand how traditions that were historically separated ended up with similar faces for evil. Anyway, at school this day Roo will get a chance to throw soybeans at the oni. If Ryan makes it home before bedtime, to be part of the custom, we may toss beans. However, I must admit last year it felt awkward. I couldn’t get my mind off the vacuuming and the fear of finding soybeans ground into the carpet, months later. Monday, February 2, 2009
Setsubun
Today, the 3rd of February, is Setsubun (literally meaning "sectional separation"). It is the eve before the last day of cold weather, or the first day of spring as noted in the Japanese Lunar calendar. On this night households partake in a ceremony called mame-maki, or soybean throwing. Someone, usually the papa of the family, wears a scary oni mask. While he’s pelted with the soybeans, other shout "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" meaning something like "Out with the oni and in with fortune to our home!" Oni, a demon of evil, highly resembles the caricature of the devil in Christianity. I find this oddly coincidental and someday will do the research to understand how traditions that were historically separated ended up with similar faces for evil. Anyway, at school this day Roo will get a chance to throw soybeans at the oni. If Ryan makes it home before bedtime, to be part of the custom, we may toss beans. However, I must admit last year it felt awkward. I couldn’t get my mind off the vacuuming and the fear of finding soybeans ground into the carpet, months later. 
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3 comments:
What an interesting tradition, thanks for sharing it! Now, the big questions are...did Ryan make it home in time and did you uninhibitedly throw beans w/o thinking of the vacuum?
Rena (long time friend of Ryan's :-) Oh! and we met briefly at the class reunion.)
Hi Rena, thanks for visiting the site. No, when Ryan arrived home both of us were in bed, unfortunately!
That's a bummer. Nothing like a condoned food fight under the premise of tradition to make an evening.
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