Setsubun: Is it the real New Year?
今日は節分です。KYOU WA SETSUBUN DESU (Today is Setsubun, the last day of winter in the traditional Japanese calendar).
Spring and brighter times are here, and for that reason Setsubun always feels like a good festival.
The Setsubun traditions are also interesting. One of the most amusing traditions is expelling the 鬼 ONI (demon).
Like Santa Claus at Christmas, the ONI turns up in in homes. The role of the red-faced ONI is often played by the parent.
Rather than bringing presents, the ONI brings sickness and misfortune.
To stop this, family members have an important job to do: 鬼をおいはらう ONI O OIHARAU (to drive out the demon).
The ONI is sent on his way with shouts of 「鬼は外」ONI WA SOTO Demons out!
Good fortune is hailed with the shout:「福は内」 FUKU WA UCHI Fortune in!
Another way of bringing good fortune into the home is scattering まめ beans on the floor.
There is a particular superstition about the scattered beans.
自分の年の数だけを拾って食べる JIBUN NO TOSHI NO KAZU DAKE O HIROTTE TABERU. People only pick up and eat the same number of beans as their age.
An alternative use for the beans, and much more fun, you can throw the まめ beans at the ONI to send him on his way.
In previous years, we went out to Brighton Metropolitan College Car Park to throw beans at a specially selected ONI.
(Apologies to any car owners reading whose vehicles were damaged by beans throw in anger)
Most parts of tradition would work better with soy beans rather than baked beans. But to make it an English-style Setsubun, baked beans might be worth a try.
Happy Setsubun everybody
PS
For those looking for a reading challenge in Japanese, I recommend the NHK easy Japanese news page (linked to below).
NHK is the Japanese government-owned public broadcasting station.
Articles are written in more simple Japanese than the main newsites. The kanji have furigana.
You can also listen along to the article while reading to improve reading speed.
Today one of the article headlines is: 富山県の日本語学校 TOYAMA-KEN NO NIHONGO GAKKOU (In a Japanese school in Toyama prefecture) 勉強する留学生が BENKYOU SURU RYUUGAKUSEI (exchange students studying at the school) 一人だけになる HITORI DAKE NI NARU (will become only one person).
The story highlights how few foreign nationals have been able to enter Japan in the last couple of years. Let’s hope that changes soon.