Today my wife and children tried to run me out of my house by throwing packets of beans at me. First, though, we tried to drive our youngest out of the house.
While the USA is waking up hibernating rodents–and hoping New York Democrats don’t kill another one–all in the name of shortening Winter, Japanese people are throwing beans at demons to celebrate the end of winter and the lunar new year. (And they’re eating sushi. More on that later.)
Today is Setsubun, which in the traditional Japanese calendar is supposed to be the last day of Winter. Because it also serves as a kind of new year, it’s traditional to take the opportunity to drive out the evil spirits of last year and make room for good luck in the new year.
A lot of people do this at temples where they try to catch bags of peanuts thrown by celebrities.
This involves a couple steps. First, everyone eats an uncut sushi roll. To do this, a compass used to figure the exact direction to face (West-Southwest this year) and then everyone must eat their entire sushi roll without talking. In many ways this tradition is absurd and may be the result of clever marketing by fishmongers, but it guarantees five to ten minutes of glorious, relaxing silence at supper. Once that’s finished, everyone can talk again and finish the rest of the sushi (which can be cut and enjoyed in small bites).
After that, one family member puts on a demon/ogre mask and then gets beans thrown at her as the other family members say “Demon out. Good luck in.” The mask is then passed to another family member who goes to a different room and suffers the bean barrage. this continues until each room has suffered a barrage.
Today, though, our oldest “had a headache” (i.e. was too cool for such stupid crap) and She Who Must Be Obeyed used her make up and not wanting to ring the mask as an excuse (i.e. was too cool for such stupid crap). This left our youngest and me to take most of the abuse.
Well, actually me.
Granted, throwing food at me is probably not the best way to get me to leave the house, especially when the “beans” we use 1) are actually coated sunflower seeds, mini-almonds and mini-pumpkin seeds; 2) are still in small bags; and 3) are highly addictive.
Poor little demon. Everyone wants him gone. (So they should stop feeding him.)