It is tradition for Setsubun to eat a certain rolled sushi for good luck. You are usually supposed to eat the long sushi without talking facing the designated direction for that year, all for good fortune. But since I am still small and there is a choking hazard, Mommy cut my sushi up into small pieces. I ate them all up without talking (comprehensively, although I did make grunts and other noises. When I was done I asked for seconds. I like this setsubun celebration a lot more than the one we had at school.
Or so I thought…
That darned oni found me at home. I was so surprised and scared that I couldn’t throw the beans at it to chase it away. After all that practice at school I panicked. Eventually it went away, maybe because Daddy said the magic words “Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi” to banish it even without the beans. Or maybe my crying did the trick. The main thing is that it left. And can you believe that all this happened when Mommy was not around. Where was she? What bad timing.
I was so flustered after that intrusion that I couldn’t even throw the beans outside. I barely managed to throw them inside. It was pretty traumatic ending to a traumatic day.
I gotta say, not my favorite event. At least when I had to face Santa I got present for all my trauma.