Setsubun
Febuary 3, 2007
In Japan, Setsubun (節分) is the day before the beginning of each season. The name literally means "seasonal division", but today when using the word, people refer mostly to Febuary 3. This day is the day before spring is said to begin. In its association with the Lunar New Year, Spring Setsubun can be thought of (and indeed was previously thought of when Japan followed the Chinese New Year set in Febuary) as a sort of New Year's Eve activity. This activity is a special ritual that is said to cleanse away all the evil of the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year to come. It is not a national holiday, but everyone celebrates it. For many centuries, the people of Japan have been performing rituals with the purpose of chasing away evil spirits at the start of spring.
Around the 13th century, it became a custom to drive away evil spirits by the strong smell of burning dried sardine heads, the smoke of burning wood and the noise of drums. While this custom is not popular anymore, a few people still decorate their house entrances with fish heads and holy tree leaves in order to deter evil spirits from entering.
In modern days, the most commonly performed setsubun ritual is the throwing of roasted beans around one's house across the country. When throwing the beans, you are supposed to shout "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" ("Demons out, happiness in"). Afterwards you should pick up and eat the number of beans, which corresponds to your age. There are also a number of regional rituals. In Kochi, and probably the surronding prefectures, one is supposed to eat sushi wrapped in Nori sea weed while facing the North. I celebrated the holiday with the Oono family. It was alot of fun, especially when everytime I went to eat my Nori rice, I had to face North. Really you only need to do it once, so my host mom kept cracking up. On the whole, I think we got the demons out of the house. Maybe.
