As someone learning the Japanese language, my knowledge of Japan has necessarily expanded beyond that of linguistic. Part of understanding the language is understanding the culture, and so the two go hand and hand. My most recent cultural experience came from hearing a little bit about the Japanese holiday 'Setsubun,' which takes place before the first day of spring in Japan (February 3rd). It's interesting to learn about, and it gave me something to write about this week!
Setsubun is traditionally celebrated by throwing soybeans in order to ward off evil spirits/demons and invite good fortune, and this is done in different contexts. Schoolchildren may throw them at adults dressed up as 'oni,' which roughly translates to demons or devils. Here's what one looks like:
Yeah, this one isn't really too demonic. A simple internet search will get you some seriously freaky drawings, though! Anyway, this serves to ward off the evil spirits and invite happiness or good fortune. In addition, there is a famous chant in Japan that goes "oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi!" Anyone who is Japanese or skilled in Japanese, please forgive my poor translation, but this roughly means something like: "demons out, good fortune in!" Afterwards, you would pick up the number of soybeans corresponding to one's age and eat them, again to invite good fortune (understandably, people are into that). I was, in fact, able to do this briefly in a Japanese class at my college, where the professor and the teaching assistant set up a small mamemaki event in class, involving classmates putting on oni masks and getting pelted with beans. I never knew throwing beans at people could be so fun! Aside from in school (and within individual families, who also perform mamemaki to bring fortune) there are also larger festivals in which the holiday is celebrated. In the modern entertainment-obsessed era, sometimes celebrities appear at festivals to perform large-scale mamemaki rituals, as you can see in the cover picture.
In addition, I also heard that people traditionally eat a large sushi roll, known as 'ehomaki,' on Setsubun. They eat in complete silence, thinking only of a wish they want fulfilled, until they finish. It's basically sushi, but a lot bigger:
There you have it! Hopefully this is sufficiently lighthearted enough to alleviate the suffering that comes with keeping up on current events. Just in case, here's a short video of a mamemaki ritual in a Japanese school:
