Setsubun!

According to Google, Setsubun is the first day of spring according to the old Japanese calendar, or the so-called lunar calendar. On the day of Setsubun, there is a custom of throwing roasted soybeans or peanuts while chanting “in good fortune!”

I celebrated Setsubun with my old share house mates on Friday. Prior to throwing peanuts, we made sushi rolls; and it was awesome! One of the roommates does make sushi for work, so she was an excellent teacher. We had quite the set up: chicken, tuna, beef, sashimi (raw) salmon, crab, egg, avocado, cucumber, carrots, red pepper; literally anything you would want in a sushi roll, we had it! I caught on pretty quick and made sushi rolls for the roommates for at least an hour. In addition to sushi, we ate tempura chicken, veggies and french fries 🙂

Sushi ingredients.

Learning from the professional herself!

Some of the finished products.

At least 2-3 of these rolls were made by yours truly 🙂

Silly seaweed smile with Mio!

Once everyone got home, each person was given a sushi roll. All of us faced northeast as this is the way of good fortune for the year. (The direction in which you face while eating the sushi changes each year.) We all had to remain silent and eat the sushi roll in one bite. This was nearly impossible considering the sushi roll was the length of my palm, but I tried! Afterwards, 2 roommates put on masks of evil spirits and we all threw peanuts at them. This is to rid of the bad energy around you. Once all the peanuts were thrown, we picked them up. Depending on how old you are, that is the number of peanuts you eat to bring in good fortune for the year. Lastly, we drank saki! One of the roommates brought unfiltered saki, which was a little creamer (and stronger!), but equally delicious.

“Evil spirits”

I ate 27 peanuts… hoping it brings me lots of luck this year!

Unfiltered saki.

Yesterday, I told some of my junior high students about my Setsubun celebration. They asked about my experience and were happy I could share that part of Japanese culture. Then, they asked if we have something similar in the US… Groundhog’s Day sure doesn’t sound like much of a celebration after talking about Setsubun!