[Quiz] A Collection of Quizzes You Can Use in February Childcare

pick up and eat

It’s considered bad manners to throw away the beans used for mamemaki, so it’s common to pick them up and eat them. Because of that, people often clean the floor beforehand so the beans are safe to eat even if they fall, and these days many also use beans sold in small bags. I’ve heard you can also put the collected beans into a teapot with tea leaves and drink it as fuku-cha (good fortune tea).

mandarin (mikan/tangerine)

Mikan are a winter fruit, and they taste great when you eat them while sitting under a kotatsu during the cold days of February. By the way, bananas are imported from overseas, so you can enjoy them year-round. Watermelons are in season in summer, and they’re actually considered a type of vegetable, not a fruit!

Setsubun

It’s Setsubun, isn’t it? On Setsubun, many preschools have “oni” (ogres) come to visit, and some children say they don’t want to go. But we’d like to convey that it’s an important event for driving out the ogres of bad feelings within ourselves. Let’s throw beans and get rid of the Crybaby Ogre, the Angry Ogre, and the rest!

Cat Day

Because February 22 can be read as “nyan nyan nyan” through a Japanese wordplay—sounding like a cat’s meow—it was designated as Cat Day in 1987. It’s said that various cat-related events are held on this day to celebrate Cat Day.

Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day is a day to express your feelings to someone you like or someone important to you. People often give chocolate, but I’ve heard that in other countries they give things like cakes or flowers. In Japan, it used to be common for women to give chocolate to men, but recently it’s become more common for people of any gender to give gifts as a way to say thank you or to express their love.

the bud part

The green, round broccoli you usually see at the supermarket is sold as the bud portion. So the part of broccoli you always eat is actually the buds. Because of that, if you leave it in the fridge for too long, the flowers may bloom. Try to eat it as soon as possible!

Gently knead the mandarin (mikan)

They say tangerines get sweeter when you knead them. The source of the sour taste in tangerines is a component called citric acid, and by kneading the tangerine, the citric acid gets damaged. As the fruit uses a lot of citric acid to repair that damage, the acidity decreases and it tastes sweeter.