Asia Travel Blog

On Feb 2-4, Kyoto will held Setsubun Festival. Setsubun means the day before the beginning of each seasons and is celebrated yearly on Feb 3.

During this festival, many shrines and temples will do special rituals in order to cleanse away all the evils, which many people believed, are relieved on their body. So, the people can face the future with more clean and pure soul. Usually the people throw beans to expell the evils while yelling “Oni no medama buttsubuse!” (means “Oni’s eyeballs–smash smash!”)

This festival has many variations, since historically this festival is associated with Kansai, the Southern-Central region of Japan’s main island, Honshu. We can find this variations in Tohoku, Fukushima Prefecture, and Aizuwakamatsu.

*the pic is taken from here*

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