Seven spring herbs 2015/1/7
It has been widely spread custom to collect seven different kinds of herbs and take rice porridge containing these seven herbs on seventh of January. It is believed spring herbs which went through cold and severe winter have strong survival ability and are healthy foods.
There was the old custom in ancient time to pick up and take young greens which put shrubs out of the ground covered by snow. It is presumed such old custom was the origin of seven spring herbs event.
The very first song of Manyoushuu , Japanese oldest anthology which contains 4516 songs is the work of Yuryaku, the emperor of mid 5th century. It is a love song for a young girl who was picking up young greens.from such positioning, we can imagine how important and essential young greens were for ancient Japanese as the symbol of luck and power.
