{"id":45,"date":"2012-02-01T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T17:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/?p=45"},"modified":"2012-03-02T11:05:06","modified_gmt":"2012-03-02T19:05:06","slug":"unique-february-events-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/unique-february-events-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Unique February Events in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>February is an important month in Japan, where there are three major special events celebrated: <em>Setsubun<\/em>, <em>Kenkoku-Kinenbi<\/em> and Valentine\u2019s Day. Each has its own set of traditions and rituals associated with the holiday.<\/p>\n<p><em>Setsubun<\/em>, or the Bean-Throwing Festival, is celebrated on February 3rd. It is traditional for people to throw dried soybeans and chant in order to drive away demons of misfortune and thus allow prosperity to enter one\u2019s life and family. It is the equivalent of \u201cSpring Cleaning\u201d in Western cultures. Men often wear masks representing these bad-luck demons or cherubs of bad fortune, as family members throw beans at them to ward them off. Another custom at Setsubun is to eat the number of soybeans corresponding to your own age for good luck.<\/p>\n<p><em>Kenkoku-Kinenbi<\/em> is a national Japanese holiday that commemorates the founding of the nation. This holiday is one of the major holidays in Japan. People show their patriotism by raising the Japanese flag at their gates. <em>Kenkoku-Kinenbi<\/em> is celebrated on February 11.<\/p>\n<p>Valentine\u2019s Day is a popular event in Japan. The traditions in Japan have one main difference from that in the West: in Japan, women give chocolate to men instead of the other way around. Women also often give out <em>giri-choco<\/em> or \u201cobligation chocolate\u201d to coworkers, bosses or male friends. They stress the word \u201cgiri\u201d to emphasize that there is no romantic feeling associated with the gift. There\u2019s been some new Valentine&#8217;s Day customs popping up in recent years. One is called <em>gyaku-choco<\/em>, or \u201dreverse chocolate\u201d, meaning chocolates are given to women by men. Also, <em>tomo-choco<\/em> \u201cfriendship chocolate&#8221; is becoming popular amongst Japanese girls, where chocolates are given to female friends.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Product of The Month: <em>Ms. Bento<\/em>\u00ae Stainless Lunch Jar (SL-NCE09).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-48\" title=\"SL-NCE09\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/slnce2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"152\" \/>The <em>Ms. Bento<\/em>\u00ae Stainless Lunch Jar contains a washable outer container, three microwaveable inner bowls (including a soup bowl), forked spoon, and convenient carrying bag. Its vacuum insulation keeps foods hot or cold for hours. It offers a durable stainless steel construction with excellent heat retention.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/products\/slnce\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/products\/slnce\">https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/products\/slnce<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>February is an important month in Japan, where there are three major special events celebrated: Setsubun, Kenkoku-Kinenbi and Valentine\u2019s Day. Each has its own set of traditions and rituals associated with the holiday. Setsubun, or the Bean-Throwing Festival, is celebrated on February 3rd. It is traditional for people to throw dried soybeans and chant in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-zojirushi-america"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Unique February Events in Japan - Zojirushi Food &amp; Culture Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/unique-february-events-in-japan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unique February Events in Japan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"February is an important month in Japan, where there are three major special events celebrated: Setsubun, Kenkoku-Kinenbi and Valentine\u2019s Day. Each has its own set of traditions and rituals associated with the holiday. Setsubun, or the Bean-Throwing Festival, is celebrated on February 3rd. 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