Personally, I think it's a little early in the year to be doing this, but I guess it's sort of an anticipatory thing. And, if I understood all things Japanese, there would be no need for this angst-riddled blog.
Setsubun means 'seasonal division' and got its start in the Muromachi-jidai (1336 - 1573 AD). Back in the day, it was a household mini celebration to cleanse the house of evil (I guess evil likes a warm place to stay in the Winter) from the past year (oops, I should have read what I was going to write before that snide remark) in anticipation of having an evil-free start to the new year (the Year of the Rabbit - as China and Japan use a similar calendar - though Japan only for astrological purposes, it too follows the Julian calendar).
The preferred way to do the purifying is to have a male of the household who happened to be born in a corresponding year - in this case, a male born previously in The Year of The Rabbit lead the event.
The 'Buck', or male rabbit guy tosses roasted soybeans out the front door or at a member of the family wearing an oni (demon) mask while others yell: "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi! (Demons out! Luck in!)". The door is then slammed shut, thereby expelling all the evil.
While people in Japan don't really do this anymore, they do go to a temple and see it being done, expecting that the exorcism will occur if one is nearby watching the ritual.
Nowadays, the Japanese kind of make their own luck by eating Eho-maki (lucky direction sushi rolls) whereby you are supposed to face towards the year's 'lucky direction' and eat the whole sushi roll without stopping. No problem. You are not allowed to talk until you have finished eating. That's a problem for me.
For 2011, the lucky direction is south by southeast. I am unsure how the heck they came up with that one. Regardless, it is a nice little fun oddity that I wish we had more of that here (wherever you are that doesn't do this).
Somewhere looking for a compass,
Andrew Joseph
Today's blog is brought to you by R.E.M. I always liked this song: STAND
It was also the theme song for a short-live TV comedy I liked: Get A Life, starring Chris Eliott.
PS: Hey! Finally a timely blog. Happy New Year, you wascally wabbit! Watch THIS.
