节分的时候，日本人拿豆子砸鬼

Around February 3rd each year is Japan's Setsubun, the day before Risshun. On the night of that day, Japanese people do one thing: scatter beans.

Someone in the house wears a demon mask and plays the demon. Others hold roasted soybeans and throw them at him, shouting while throwing: "Demons out, luck in!" The person playing the demon acts as if running away, chased all the way outside the door. Then the door is shut, everyone picks up the beans, and when eating them, they count out a number according to their age, then eat one more; it is said this keeps them from getting sick all year.

Shrines have this too, inviting sumo wrestlers and entertainers to stand on a high platform and scatter beans, while people below scramble for them. At the entrance, they also hang a small sardine head stuck on a holly branch, called "Hiragi Iwashi"; it is said that demons smell the fishy odor, get their eyes pricked by the leaves, and dare not enter.

In recent decades, Japan has added another custom: on this night, facing the lucky direction of the year, silently eat an entire sushi roll, called "Ehomaki", without speaking; this was popularized by convenience stores.

This custom comes from China's "Da Nuo", a court ritual for exorcising demons, which turned into beans when transmitted to Japan. Why beans? Some say "bean" sounds similar to "exterminate demons", and others say beans are one of the five grains and have spirits.

Japanese demons enter from the northeast, called the "Demon Gate", so demons all have ox horns and wear tiger-skin trousers; "Chou Yin" refers to the ox and the tiger.

However, some individual shrines and places do the opposite, shouting "Demons come in too", because what they enshrine are originally demons.

#Folklore #网络转载 #日本怪谈