February 3 is the day before the beginning of Spring and is called Setsubun. This year, I visited Mononobe Shrine of Oda City in Shimane, to celebrate the Festival which started at 23:00.
Shrine's sacred rock "Kachi Ishi (winning rock)," the seat of God.
The night temperature was 3 degree C, and bonfire warmed us all up.
Purifying Fire Ceremony started right at 11PM as scheduled, with Shinto priest's Norito prayers.
Then two girls showed up who held bows and arrows with fire. They shot two arrows each to light the offerings of worshipers.
After the ceremony, I had a bowl of buckwheat soba noodle (400 yen) served by the Shrine people. It was so tasty and made me very warm!
And I received these lucky items of Setsubun beans and talisman.
Happy Setsubun 2013!!
2 comments:
Happy Setsubun. Looks like you had a great time. This year we visited Kano just south of Gifu JR Station. It was a lot of fun :)
Your setsubun at Kano Temple looks great too! And what a gorgeous ehomaki sushi roll!!!
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