Setsubun, which is celebrated all over Japan on February 3, represents a spiritual spring cleaning.

People in Japan cleanse their homes and selves of bad spirits called oni and invite in good luck by throwing peanuts or roasted soybeans throughout their house and at one another. Large uncut sushi rolls are then enjoyed in silence while contemplating a goal or wish for the next season.

For the ninth year, Moravian Academy second-graders at the Downtown Campus celebrated this holiday to open the collaborative unit on Japan in art and their homeroom.

Students cast the oni out of each other with bird seed while wearing oni masks created in art class. These oni represent a spring goal, something students have identified they would like to improve about themselves. Then we enjoyed a Japanese snack while facing the direction in which the good spirits live, and we contemplated how we plan to improve ourselves during the coming spring.