2.3.22
What are demon masks, roasted soybeans, dried sardine heads, and holly leaves doing at a preschool?
They are used to celebrate the Setsubun holiday of course! I learned about this today when going into school and being surprised by the throng of kiddos throwing beans at me while screaming “Oni wa soto (demons out!) fuku wa uchi (fortune in!).”
Having been celebrated since the 8th century, it traces its roots back to the Chinese Lunar New Year, and it recognizes new starts by ridding last year’s unwanted demons. The demons are then replaced with good luck for the upcoming year. Setsubun falls on February 3rd, though it was originally celebrated on the day before the first day of Spring per the old Japanese calendar.
The lovely activity of “being pelted at by soybeans” is called mamemaki, where the beans are called “fuku mame” (fortune beans) and they are despised by demons, thus warding such spirits out. This comes with eating ehomaki, a long, uncut sushi roll that is to be pointed towards a lucky direction as determined by the lunar calendar. Apparently these are eaten silently and without stopping so there is no interruption of luck being poured into you…as amazing as the rolls look, I wondered if one could really expect such a task from 4 - 5 year olds. But alas!
The kiddos all had prepared their masks and it was quite a sight seeing little legs and bright, colorful boxes running into each other since most of their eye-holes didn’t seem to be fully cut out. Assigned as a demon, I was also given a mask that blinded me more than desired…which meant I may have run over a few kids in the process of running away from the beans. But luckily, the amount of laughter indicated that collisions were completely overlooked. I had always read about this tradition but never had experienced it for myself. So! What fun to get to actually experience the bean throwing with the preschool. There’s still a lot more to the event (yes, I didn’t get to sardine heads and holly) so if interested you can click here!
the lovely oni masks the kiddos crafted
my oni mask and me getting ready for the BEANS
