We did Setsubun last year, dragging the Regenbogens to participate by throwing soy beans to beat the devil out of the house...then throwing a bunch inside for good luck where next you must eat your age number of soy beans. I hadn't planned it quite yet this year (usually, Nijiya and what they sell reminds me of the seasonal things going on), and I've missed the proper date but shall do this to "cleanse" our house at some date.
But T's preschool, being so organized and amazing as always, did the ritual today.
When I arrived to pick her up, as usual, I headed to a teacher to check in how T was. Hitomi-sensei said she cried...and first I thought, "time-out or a fight?" But what happened is the Oni (devil) came to school for Setsubun so the kids could beat him out with soy beans, and T freaked out. She cried! Last time, she knew it was daddy. This time it was a teacher, and I guess he went all out.
However, since our daily come-home-ritual is, I "play Tesla" while she "plays mama," she reenacted what happened at preschool. So me being Tesla, I said I was scared. Tesla being "mama" then comforted me saying, "it's OK, it's for pretend."
So she knew what was going on. It's fine feeling scared (I'm a total scaredy cat myself), and I really feel Halloween or Setsubun is ideal for kids to experiment with fear in safe way. But I was impressed that in spite her fear, T did somewhere know what was going on.
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