Happy Setsubun!

~February 3rd marks a Japanese celebration called "Setsubun" (節分). I had no idea what it was until one of my coworkers explained it to me. Essentially, setusbun is a traditional New Year's activity to drive out all the bad luck that has accumulated from the old year, and welcome good luck into the new year. The manner in which this is done, however, is unique.

The principal activity of setsubun is called "mamemaki", which means "bean scattering". To perform mamemaki, one person in the house dresses up as an oni (demon), and somebody else throws dried soybeans or peas at them! More recently, everyone except the oni participates in the bean-scattering. Kids, as you can imagine, love it.

The person who pretends to be the oni is usually the oldest brother or the father. Interestingly, the Japanese word from brother is "Onii", which sounds very similar to the word for demon! I'm sure that sisters the world over heartily agree with this linguistic similarity.

^ The "oni" is supposed to be chased all around the house, so that the peas are scattered everywhere. While doing this, the pea-thrower chants, "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" (鬼は外! 福は内!), which means, "Demon is out! Good luck is in!". Some regions of Japan utilize variations on this chant.

I found a pair of online mamemaki-themed games where you have to throw beans at demons. If you need some amusement, you can play the games here and here.

^ Supplies for setsubun can be easily purchased in many stores. I took this picture in a local supermarket, where the packages of beans come with ready-to-wear oni masks. Young children often make their own masks at school, and mamemaki is also celebrated at Shinto shrines across Japan.

You can find downloadable pictures of oni masks here and here which you can print, cut out, and wear, should you so desire. There is also a site where you can create your own oni mask. Go on, you know you want to try it out.

^ A green oni mask. This one reminds me of Green Goblin from the Spider-Man movie.

^ Red oni masks. To me, they look more like clowns than evil spirits. Wait, clowns are evil spirits, right? The next time I see Ronald McDonald, he's getting a soybean thrown in his face courtesy of yours truly.

After the beans have been scattered around the house, it's time to eat them! That's right, you have to eat the stuff you threw to get rid of your residual bad luck. Ideally, you should eat one bean for each year of your life (or, more accurately, one for each setsubun you've celebrated). If you happen to live alone and can't throw beans at someone, you can still eat the beans to supposedly keep yourself free of sickness in the coming year

Of course, it's not exactly hygenic to consume food that you've thrown on the floor, so in recent years many people have switched from beans to peanuts that are still in the shell. Once the thrown peanuts have been collected, the shells are removed and the clean peanuts inside are eaten. In addition, after makemaki is finished, you're supposed to eat "chomaki". This is a kind of roll containing rice and dried seaweed (yum!); I'm told that it resembles an uncut California Roll.

The word "setsubun" actually refers to the day before the first day of each new season in the traditional Chinese calendar. However, in Japan the word has come to refer to February 3rd, the day before Risshun (立春), the traditional first day of spring. Ideally, setsubun should precede the Lunar New Year; in the year 2000, the solar and lunar cycles matched up to almost make setsubun the actual New Year's Eve (the Lunar New Year in 2000 was on February 5th). However, this year the Lunar New Year will not arrive until February 18th (Year of the Boar, baby!).

Learning about setsubun clears up something I had been wondering about for a few days. Last weekend, I went shopping in the largest supermarket in Nagaoka, and I noticed a large display set up with huge packages of peanuts. There were several children wearing demon-masks who were laughing and chasing each other, defying parental attempts to catch them. At the time, I thought it was some kind of sale, or perhaps a promotion to sell peanuts by offering a colorful mask. Now, of course, I know that it was in preparation for setsubun.

Living alone as I do, I don't have anyone to throw beans at. And because I was working all day, I couldn't check out the festivities held at the many local shrines. So I'll celebrate setsubun in my own way: by scattering 23 pistachios around my apartment, and then eating them...after removing the shells. ~Oyasumi!