February 3 was this year's Setsubun beans or nuts scatterings across the country Japan. The Japanese term Setsubun or 節分 literally means either the close of winter or the day before each season begins. Yet, the former definition is much more common in general.

Until the day reached, there had been a number of events for Setsubun at schools, community's shrines, and so on, for local kids. As a mother I took part in one of them with my kids, one of whom is a first grader in elementary school. The event was held by local seniors at a nearby shrine.  As we and other students were invited to the party, thanks to those seniors, I'd like to write what we were given in my diary.

Before I tell what we did yesterday, I'll introduce to you a bit of the Japanese tradition. Setsubun is an event where we scatter roasted soybeans or peanuts with hulls, depending on where we live. Although the former case seems more popular to throw nationwide, we take a lot of peanuts hulls. Then, we pick up and bring them home. The reason for it is because historically we used to think that devils would appear at the turn of the season and exorcized the evils. Today, we learn and foster the folk tales, though we hardly believe that the imaginary character has been survived.

So, my kids and I went to visit the shrine with a community hall. The seniors had prepared peanuts with hulls and bagged snacks to be thrown. Because of the shrine, at first all the people prayed at the altar as clapping hands and placing them still.

Now, the party got to begin! A number of seniors threw snacks and peanuts at crowds of students, who picked them as much as possible fallen on the tatami mat. Although it's often to see treats got thrown in everyday life, this time was also the exiting moment. After minutes of scattering, my first-grader son won a bag of candies and peanuts. You might be concerned whether the peanuts were not clean. Because it has a hull, there's no problem to eat the core.

In tradition, costumed devils would appear on stage somewhere, yet it depends on the event or place. Setsubun, in particular, have variations from localities. I just wanted to record one piece of Setsubun parties and how we spent the occasion.