Yesterday the rodent... today the beans!

In Japan, the custom of February 3rd is Bean-throwing.

Until my new niece-in-law, Rimi, enlightened me today in an email, I had no idea about why ANYONE would throw beans, much less call it a festival.  But that's the custom in Japan on either February 3 or 4, depending upon which of the 113,000 Google results that you care to read about Setsubun -- the Bean-Throwing Festival, which takes place one day before the beginning of spring, according to the Japanese Lunar Calendar.  Hey, I really LIKE this Japanese calendar!  Forget that silly rodent named Phil, who just yesterday claimed to be the all-knowing weather-seer.  Six more weeks of winter?  Phooey!  I'm all for starting even earlier than Phil's prediction and if springtime starts on February 5th in Japan... I say bring it on!!!   

Why do Setsubun?  To scare away the BoogeyMan, BoogeyDog, BoogeyMonster, etc. and to insure good luck for the new season.  I'm all for that.  

Setsubun brings good luck AND an earlier spring?  Bring on the beans!

But wait... there's more...

Apparently, its necessary to face in the proper direction when throwing the beans.  In all the pages I read through this evening about Setsubun, I never did learn which direction is the proper one.  And just how many variations of degrees of the compass must I rule out if I'm to try and venture a guess?  Hmmmm, do I face in an easterly direction?  Or would directly west be more accurate?  Or maybe slightly WSW?  Or how 'bout ENE? (one of my favorite directions and pronounced "eeny", as in "eeny, meeny, miny, moe".  I also like NNE, pronounced "neeny".  Hey, I'm easily amused.)  

A quickly emailed question to Rimi (rhymes with "eeny") has not yet netted the answer. 

Then there is the proper incantation to recite.  When throwing the beans out the door, you are to shout, "Oni wa soto!  Fu ku wa uchi!" which is Japanese of course and means "Devils out!  Happiness in!"  Then, you pick up and eat the number of beans which corresponds to your age.

Okay, I suppose I can do that part if I clean my floor first and sweep off the front steps.  But what happens if I cannot then find enough beans to eat after I've thrown them out the door?  (I'll need several dozen!)  I couldn't figure out how to Google that question.

Oh, the beans of choice are roasted soybeans.  I used to have some of those here around the house from back in my peri-menopausal hot-flash days.  Supposibly (or supposedly... hey, they're both real words), they help with the flashing.  I used to eat 'em 'til I gagged.

And speaking of gagging...

We now come to a difficult part of the ceremony, at least it would be for me.  You're suppose to eat a special sushi, which has been wrapped a certain special way... and you must eat the ENTIRE roll without stopping (or gagging) or speaking mid-sushi.  If you stop before finishing, or (heaven forbid!) utter a single syllable, all good-luck bets are off. 

Then there are the special decorations.  It is a custom to decorate your front door with a display of dried sardine heads and holly.  Yeppers, you heard me right... dried sardine heads and holly.  I used to think that one of the strangest things I'd heard about Japanese culture was that they like corn on their pizza.  But this one tops that one hands down!   Sardine heads and holly.  I suppose in Japan it is possible to purchase these decorations pre-made.  But here... WHERE does one obtain DRIED sardine heads???  Those kinds of decorative tidbits just aren't found at the local craft-supply stores.  I can just see me going in to JoAnn's and inquiring!  Back in the 13th Century, people would burn the sardine heads, the bad odor believed to drive away the bad spirits (and keep anyone ELSE from entering your home too!)  But back in the 13th Century, we surely wouldn't have known about these things.  Japan then was a "closed society" and here in "The West" we had no inkling of what happens in Japan... and we DIDN'T find out until Victorian times, when trade with Japan was established.  

Just think of all those lost hundreds of years of bean-throwing!  

Who knew?  

But now, thanks to Rimi... YOU do.

Arigato, Rimi!

Happy Bean-throwing Day everyone!