Most typical events will be throwing fried yellow beans out of the house, yelling 'Oni ha soto, Fuku ha uchi'. Which means, devil outside & happiness inside!! May your spring be filled with happiness and hope.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Setsubun - Spring is coming too in Japan!
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2 comments:
Interesting, how similar intentions are around the world, even if the specifics of our practices may be different. It makes sense, that this is the time for spring cleaning, to clear out the old and stale, and bring in the fresh and life-giving. Why fried yellow beans though, to represent the devil?
Why fried yellow beans??
I'm sorry, actually it should be soybeans for accurate. Hmm... good question, after doing more research, it seems like to do with the iron bar the japanese devils (demons??) hold. In the chinese scholar, the 'Iron' in the 5 elements can be burnt out by the 'Fire' element. And where soybean is known to be as hard as iron, they fried the beans with fire so as to represents getting rid off the devil's power. And by eating the roasted beans will help to gain a body that can prevent the demons. Well, explaining it briefly will be something like that. Do come to Japan in feb to enjoy some of the customs of Setsubun.
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