Today is setsubun, the day before the beginning of spring. So as part of tradition we drive away the evil spirits with mamemaki, or bean scattering. The evil spirits are represented by oni, or ogres. It just so happened that one visited our house today. At first I thought he was a bit familiar and funny looking, so I started laughing. But then I started to get scared.
Apparently, the ritual is that you have to chase the oni away with the mamemaki beans. You are supposed to throw the beans at them and say “Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi“, which means “Evil out, happiness in.” You are also supposed to eat one bean for every year of your life and one extra. I’m not very good at throwing yet, but I’m good at eating. So I ate mini egg biscuit balls instead. It seemed to work. The oni grew tame and then left peacefully. I’m not so fond of his visit, but I like the eating for luck part of the tradition!