Setusbun

There's nothing like having a demon come knocking at our door to make us have fits of laughter and start throwing things all in the name of scaring away bad luck.  The last day of winter is a holiday in Japan - Setsubun (set-sue-boo-n).  The turn of the lunar calendar brings a new start, but first you need to rid yourself of any lingering bad luck from the previous year.  So, Oni (oh-knee), a demon, tries to come with bad luck and you need to scare him away by throwing beans (or peanuts in Hokkaido) at him and shouting "Oni wa soto!  Fuku wa uchi!"  (Out with the demons!  In with the luck!)  It is a fun holiday for children, who get really into the game of getting rid of Oni. 

Our family loves this type of holiday.  We celebrate with enthusiasm.  And this year was no different.

We started the day with searching out futomaki, a sushi roll filled with cooked ingredients.  On Setsubun a person eats a whole, unsliced futomaki in silence while facing a specified direction.  At the store, there were stacks and stacks of them!  It was shocking.  We've always had to search them out in the US and explain over and over again what we wanted, even at Japanese restaurants.  I was amazed by all the choices.  We even managed to find a little one for our son!

After a few other errands, including swim lessons, we headed to the shrine for a celebration there.  We observed a ceremony within the shrine building.  A priest chanted a prayer over a loud speaker and another priest was rhythmically beating a drum.  It's a pretty sound.  Then priests and volunteers came out and threw dry soybeans at us while chanting "Oni wa soto!  Fuku wa uchi!"  It soufnds so silly, but it was really fun.  Our son thought it was great.  As we left the shrine, they handed out bags of goodies to all the kids. 

We went home to dine on our futomaki.  My husband made a couple other things to round out our meal - grilled fish, a simple soup, sliced (fancy) futomaki, and a couple varieties of fishcake.  It was a fun dinner.  Our son tried really hard to not talk while eating the futomaki.  He kept whispering "this is really yummy" to us. 

After dinner, Oni came to visit.  He entered through our living room door and was greeted with shrieks and lots and lots of beans.  We each took a turn being Oni and throwing beans. 

We ended the day with fun desserts from the bakery.  They had a fun Oni dome cake, lucky direction roll cake, and a strawberry dome cake (that has nothing to do with Setsubun, but was fun and seasonal).  They were all very delicious.  My son really enjoyed the Oni cake.  It was a fun way to wrap up the day of celebration.