Setsubun-sai (Shinto) - February 3

Shinto (meaning roughly the "Way of the Gods") is Japan's indigenous/native religion. Setsubun-sai is an ancient Shinto celebration based on Japan's old Lunar calendar and was historically considered the start of the New Year. For the common people, it is considered a good luck festival. It remains as an important celebration of the change of seasons, of the coming of spring, and of the end of “Kan,” the coldest season.

Setsubun-sai is not a national holiday in Japan; however, all over the country – both in private homes, and publicly in large festivals at Shinto Shrines and at Buddhist Temples – there are celebrations for Setsubun. There are mass public Setsubun observances involving popular television personalities, Sumo Wrestlers, and other notables.

Setsubun (meaning “season division”) is celebrated this year on February 3rd, one day before Risshun (the first day of spring in the traditional Japanese lunar calendar).

While there many regional variations in the celebration of Setsubun, in most communities the tradition of mame-maki (literally, bean scattering) remains as the main event. For this reason this festival is also commonly known as "O-mame-maki," or the bean throwing festival. It marks the end of the coldest season, "Kan," and celebrates the coming of spring while throwing beans to keep demons away.


The custom of mame-maki dates to the Heian-era (794 to 1185) of classical Japanese history. Mame-maki began as a special New Year’s ritual to drive out evil spirits and the seeds of misfortune, and to welcome good fortune in the New Year. Shouts of "Devils out, Good fortune in" are part of the long-standing ritual.

In the ceremony, soybeans are first roasted to seal in any evil acts that might have been performed by demons during the previous year and to insure that bad fortune will not germinate in the coming year. In homes, the custom is to symbolically purify the home by either scattering the roasted beans or by throwing them out the door while chanting “Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi!" - roughly translated, "Demons out! Luck in!" (Think of New Year’s toasts of “Out with the old and in with the new!” and you’ll have the general idea!)

In a related custom, many people make a practice of eating one of the remaining soybeans for each year of their age.

Shinto is generally considered one of the “classic” eleven or twelve “major world religions.” However, in current polls only about 3.3% of the Japanese people give Shinto as their religion. World-wide there are at most about 4 million people who consider themselves primarily practitioners of Shinto.