Animal Crossing: New Horizonswill celebrate the Japanese holiday Setsubun and other events from around the world with new items and costumes via the Nook Shopping app and the Able Sisters.
TheJapaneseAnimal Crossingserieshas always kept its roots by celebrating holidays and events in Japan, as well as keeping an array of traditional Japanese furniture in the catalog. In the past, some of these events have been exclusive toAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsplayers in Japan. For example,New Leafused to celebrate Tanabata exclusively with Japanese versions of the game, but this yearAnimal Crossingbrought festive Tanabata bamboo treestoNew Horizons. It looks like the same will happen with the Japanese holiday Setsubun in theAnimal Crossinguniverse.
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Setsubun is a traditional Japanese festival also sometimes referred to as the Bean-Throwing Ceremony because its ritual typically sees people throwing roasted soybeans out of their front doors, or family members throwing the beans at others wearing demon or ogre masks. This is done to symbolically purify households of bad luck and bring good luck while saying goodbye to winter. Other times, people will visit shrines or temples to perform this ritual called mamemaki with traditional music. InAnimal Crossing: New Leaf, this holidaywas called Bean Day.
So far,Animal Crossinghas only announced two itemsthat will go along with the Setsubun festival: a Bean-Tossing Kit that will be available via the Nook Shopping app, and an Ogre costume that will appear in the Able Sisters' shop starting February 1. But the holiday will likely have a strong semblance toNew Leaf’s version, where villagers walk around throwing beans throughout the day.
Also inNew Leaf, Timmy and Tommy would sell Good-Luck Rolls along with Beans for 800 bells, and if players walked up to a villager wearing an Ogre mask (or onimask, in Japan), the villager would perform mamemakiand throw beans at them. It’s unclear if the Rolls will be available inAnimal Crossing: New Horizons,but based on Nintendo’s announcement, it looks beans can be used like tools and thrown at other players. Bean Day traditionally occurs on February 3, but the real-world Setsubun will take place on February 2 this year.
Animal Crossing: New Horizonswill also see the Festivale updateon January 28. The event itself will take place on February 15, acting asAnimal Crossing’s version of Mardi Gras.
Animal Crossing: New Horizonsis out now, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
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