My First Setsubun
Today in Japan is Setsubun. Unless you are familiar with Japanese culture, you probably aren’t aware of what that is. Setsubun, or as the kindergarten I work at makes me call it “bean festival” is a Japanese holiday that occurs on February 3rd every year. Setsubun (節分)’s name literally translates to seasonal divider as it is classically the day between winter and spring in the Japanese calendar, however it is called “bean festival” because there is an event associated with the day where people (usually children) throw beans inside and outside of the house to bring luck.
I was introduced to Setsubun back in 2009, two months after having gotten back from my first trip to Japan. I was a member of my university’s Japanese conversation table, where we would meet for an hour or two every Monday and practice using Japanese. On this particular week, seeing as it was the day before Setsubun, the students from Japan taught us about Setsubun. They explained that people take some fukumame (福豆/literally: fortune beans/roasted soybeans) and throw them outside and say “oni wa soto” (鬼は外/demons are outside) and throwing beans inside and say “fuku wa uchi” (福は内/fortune is inside). The idea is to cast out the bad luck and bring in good luck through the coming year. So we went outside and threw the beans reciting the chant.
There are several masks that are often associated with setsubun. The first one is the oni mask, oni (鬼) are often translated as ogres or demons, but are both and neither at the same time, sort of their own creature, but the point is that they aren’t good. Then representing good luck is the otafuku mask, a humble old woman with closed eyes, dots as eyebrows and hair parted down the middle. The oni and the otafuku masks are opposites and each representing the good luck and bad luck in the chant. I remember thinking what a strange and random holiday, but I really liked all of the strong traditions associated with this event.
