February
3rd marks "Setsubun" in Japan - A pre Spring "Halloween" type affair
without silly outfits,well kids wear masks and hurls peanuts, soy beans
and other pulses screaming "Oni ha Soto, Fuku ha Uchi" - Devils outside
! Good luck inside !
The significance ?
Various
reasons abound,. The birth of spring, the celebration of an old monk
driving out demons by hurling pulses at them, sometimes the beans are
heated, splitting them to encourage the growth of spring as one
co-worker mentioned.
Regardless,
its a time for supermarkets to stock up on pulse based products
accompanied by paper masks for the kids to celebrate a tradition no one
really understands anymore including bewildered gaijin like myself
seeing kids running around with red devil masks chucking peanuts
screaming like they've escaped drowning.