豆まき – Bean Throwing

People in ancient Japan believed that they got sick due to evil spirits when the season changed.  The bean-throwing ceremony or mamemaki (豆まき) was first held at local shrines and soon after people started doing it in their homes.  Usually for a mamemaki an adult man puts on a demon mask and shows up at a house.  Family members chase him and throw soy beans at him while they yell “out with the demon and in with good fortune! (鬼は外、福は内)”.