Japan's Bullfinch Festival

Japanese Bullfinch ("Uso")

Next week, Tenjin shrines throughout Japan will sponsor their annual "Uso Exchanges" – a ritual that involves a pretty bird called the Uso, or bullfinch.

With its red breast contrasting starkly with its black head and tail, the little bullfinch has come to represent falsehoods in our lives … lies as it may. But these lies can be exchanged for the truths inherent in the spirit of Sugawara Michizane, a poet, scholar and politician in Japan’s Heian period.

Since the 17^th Century, locals have gone to Tenjin shrines and purchased wood-carved manifestations of the Uso. They then exchange the wooden birds with others who they meet at the shrine, symbolically turning their misfortunes into lies and exchanging them for truths.

This ritual usually is scheduled for January 25, so if you hurry, you still have time to get to Japan and participate.

Me? I think I’ll hang on to my lies this year. I'm saving my money to go to Las Vegas.

(I have to credit Marukai Market's monthly publication, Irasshai, with turning me on to this information. This interesting mailer is where I get most of my knowledge about Japanese customs and traditions that I pass on to you.)