The Feast of the Seven Herbs of Health
We celebrate “Jinjitsu no Sekku”(/人日の節句, the Seasonal Festival of the Person-day) or “Nanakusa no Sekku”(/七草の節句 or 七種の節句, the Feast of the Seven Herbs of Health), eating rice porridge with the seven vernal herbs of health on January 7th every year.
The seven herbs are; seri(Japanese parsely), nazuna(shepherd’s- purse), gogyo,hakobera(chickweed), hotokenoza(hawk’s-beard), suzuna(leaf of turnip), and suzushiro(leaf of Japanese radish).
“The first seven days” of a new year is called “Matsu no uchi”(/松の内, ” the term of the pines”, or,the auspicious new year holidays) and we celebrate the festival on the final day wishing health for everyone. And in olden days, even criminals were not punished on January 7th.
In autumn, we also have the Seven Autumnal Herbs of Health as well.
On this 7th ,actually, I ate rice porridge of the seven herbs of health with my family.
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