Holly and Sardine

I found an interesting post on Japundit!
Apparently, in Kansai area in Japan, there is a costome that people poke a cooked sardine's head throught a branch of holly and put them by their doors so that they can protect themselves from evil sprits on the day of Setsubun(the day before the starting of spring) . Really weird!! But most surprisingly, there is specific meaning for that(this is so Japanese :)). The leaf of holly is for poking evil sprits'(Onis') eyes when they try to come into one's house, and the smoke and the smell made by the act of cooking sardine is also for driving them away from one's house.

I am definitely sure that this is the only costome you can see in Kansai area, becase I am from Kyusyu, the most western area of Japan, but I've never heard or saw this kind of thing in there. We only did Mamemaki. Now, it sounds a little boring only having a Mamemaki costom!!

日本って面白い！
日本って昔のままの天皇制が失われたら、つまらない普通の国になってしまうのかもしれないなぁ