3 also marked the date of an ancient Japanese ritual called Setsubun. On the cusp of spring, people dispatched the evil of the previous year and welcomed luck by tossing roasted soybeans outside their entrances. “Oni wa soto. Fuku wa uchi!” “Demons out! Luck in,” they called. Harry had once celebrated this custom in Hiroshima, where children wore devil masks and chewed one crispy bean for each year of their lives.
