せつぶん

==== People throw soy beans (まめ) saying 「おにはそと、ふくはうち」(Go out ogres, come in fortunes!!) on Setsubun. After that, they eat the same number of beans as their age. Beans are used in this festival because the sound of "まめ" (beans in Japanese) has the meaning of health as well. Also, soy beans are rich in nutrition and grow strongly. Therefore people believe that beans have such a strong power to beat evils, bad lucks and diseases. ====

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At major shrines, there is Setsubun ceremony held and famous sumo wrestlers and celebrities are invited to throw roasted soy beans (some wrapped in gold or silver foil), small envelopes with money, sweets, candies and other prizes.

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People believed that it keeps all the demons out as they hate the smell of fish head and are scared to be poked their eyes with prickly holly leaves.

 * おに colouring in: [[file:setsubun colouring in.pdf]]
 * Kids Web Japan: []