Setsubun
Friday, February 3rd, 2006
Today is “Setsubun“, the day before the first day of spring, according to the traditional Japanese calendar. On this day, children all over Japan throw beans around the house traditionally, although more and more they just throw regular peanuts, in order to drive evil spirits away from the home. These evil spirits called “Oni” in Japanese, are red demons with horns and long pointy teeth. There are many festivals everywhere in Japan, and it is a day for the children to have fun, although many of them get a real good scare from people impersonating Oni. The real burden, though, falls on Japanese housewives, who apparently find peanuts while they clean up well into the summer…
