Hi everybody,
We’re back!
We just finished a busy Setsubun festival weekend! This past
Sunday (2/3) was Setsubun. Setsubun is the Japanese Spring Equinox – or the
coming of Spring (no groundhogs here). On this day, Japanese usher in spring
quite literally almost. It’s kind of a “cleaning day.”
We send out the bad luck and bring in the good luck: “oni wa
soto, fuku wa uchi” (literally demon out, fortune in).
 |
| Hello from Mibu Shrine! |
First we went to a Shinto shrine to pray for good luck and
then we saw a kyogen (pantomime performance) of the story of the Setsubun
tradition. On the day of Setsubun, way way way back, there was an elderly widow
who met a passing priest. The priest was supposed to rid her house of bad luck
so he gave her all sorts of talismans and weapons against evil – holly
branches, sardines, and soybeans. Then a demon came to the house and tricked
the widow by giving her fancy dresses, money, and alcohol. Then the widow
finally saw the demon’s true form and was scared. She took the priest’s weapons
and threw them at the demon. The demon didn’t like the beans and ran away.
So now, people throw beans through their house to rid it of
the demons (though many people don’t anymore since it’s kinda messy).
There’s also a tradition of eating a sushi roll in the
“lucky” direction, but I don’t really get that one. There’s also a plate charm
that reads safety in the home, but I don’t really get that one either.
We also met with a lot of nice Stanford alumni who live in
the Kyoto area. They prepared us a welcome lunch after Setsubun. Then I went
home and found a sleeping oni. I threw peanuts at him. He ate them. Then went
back to sleep. ;p
 |
| Eating sushi in the lucky direction? |
-Sumi
No comments:
Post a Comment