Beans are known for being good for the heart, but it also has the power to bring good luck and ward off evil spirits. The Japanese Student Association celebrated a Japanese tradition called Setsubun on Feb. 1, during their club meeting. Traditionally on Feb. 3, pan-heated soy beans, called irimame, are thrown out of houses to cast off evil spirits and bad luck, bringing inside good luck and health. JSA President Peter Nguyen told La Voz that the beans are also thrown at someone with a mask that represented the “oni” which means “ghost” or “demon” in one of the ceremonies to scare it away. To select the person who was going to play the role as the oni, an ice breaker game called Fruit Basket, a combination of the American games Duck-Duck Goose and Musical Chairs, was played, but not normally a part of the traditional games for Setsubun. In the end, Daryn Laffergy was selected to be the oni. However, he was “not looking forward to it.” Mari Shibata, a member of JSA, said in an e-mail that, “‘Setsubun’ originally means the day before the turning point of seasons.” Shibata also said that this tradition was brought over from China with the first celebration held at the emperor’s court in 706 AD. Eventually, the “‘Setsubun’ ritual [spread] into Buddhist temples and Japanese Shinto shrines,” during the Edo era. The members also played games involving the soy beans. In a game generically called “mame tsukami,” the first team to pick up 10 soy beans using chop sticks from each person was the winner. They also put spoons in their mouths transferring the beans from one person to another in a straight line with out the use of hands. Finally, Laffergy ran around the room with an oni mask while everyone threw the beans at him. A few spoons were thrown across the room as well. This was one of many ways Nguyen wanted to show people about the Japanese culture. There are a lot “anime and video games, but that doesn’t portray the Japanese culture in the right way,” he said. “There’s a lot of misunderstanding.”