Today, 3 February, is 節分の日 (Setsubun no Hi) in Japan. 節分 (Setsubun) is one of the traditional customs, which originally people celecrate coming of spring.
On Setsubun day, we have an event to scatter parched beans to drive out bad luck, saying 「福は内、鬼は外」 ("Come on in, Fuku; Get out, Oni."). Fuku is a symbol of happiness and good luck; and Oni is a symbol of unhappiness and bad luck, which literally means ogres.
The recent boom is eating 恵方巻き (eho-maki), which is a kind of sushi roll. Eating eho-maki is said to bring us good luck. So a lot of people have one facing this year's lucky direction. In 2009, it's east-north-east.
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