Water dropwort, shepherd’s purse, cudweed, chickweed, henbit, turnip, daikon radish
These are the seven herbs of spring, and we eat rice porridge with their young leaves on this day, the 7th of January as an annual event.
But why?
The original intention is not to soothe the stomach beaten by too much food and drink during the year-end and New Year holidays.
The 7th of the first month of the new year is the first celebration of the five season-related festivities in Japan.
The seven herbs are annual plants and wither from fall to winter and begin to sprout and put forth young leaves. It is said that people in the past used to eat those young leaves, wishing their rejuvenation, and this was the start. But it has been changed to hope “the state of perfect health.”
Anyway, around this season, it is good to eat rice porridge in the morning time to make our body warm from the stomach.
