At a Glance: Bon Festival

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Top photo:  Atul Vinayak on Unsplash

This weekend in Japan will see the annual Bon Festival, also known as Obon (お盆). One of the most important celebrations in Japanese culture, the Bon Festival traces its origins to the Ghost Festival of China, itself derived from two distinct Buddhist and Taoist festivals. It is a celebration of the dead and honoring the spirits of one’s ancestors; a common point of comparison is Mexico’s Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead.

Though the festival takes place at different times during the summer across Japan, Hachigatsu Bon (Bon in August), based on the lunar calendar, is the most commonly celebrated time, beginning on the 15th of August.

Over the 500 years it has been celebrated in Japan, the Bon Festival has evolved into a family-oriented holiday. It is a time during which people return to their family’s ancestral homes to visit and clean the ancestors’ graves. It is also believed that the spirits of ancestors revisit the household altars around this time.

Despite its associate with death and the afterlife, the Bon Festival is a time of celebration rather than mourning. For many Japanese people, it is the other chance to “go home for the holidays” aside from the New Year’s period, and (if they live in the city) return to the country villages where their ancestors once lived.

As Obon occurs in the hottest months of the year, it is common for people to wear yukata, the lighter cotton version of the kimono, around this time. In modern times, local festivals during Bon often take the form of large carnivals with rides, games, and summer festival foods. Another Bon Festival tradition is the Bon Odori, or Bon Dance (盆踊り). There are may regional varieties of dances, often reflecting the area’s history and specialization.

As you may have noticed, lanterns play an important role during this festival as well. Many are hung up as part of the festival decorations, creating colorful streams of light under which participants dance. In many regions floating candle-lit paper lanterns down a river or in a pond/lake is a popular part of the Obon festivities. If you have the chance, you owe it to yourself to see a lantern floating event during the Japanese summer.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Bon celebrations, much like 2020’s, are sure to be somewhat curtailed. They will be smallere and more personal. There won’t be quite the same level of camaraderie as in years past. But those days aren’t gone forever. The Bon Festival is as much a celebration of life as it is death in how it brings families together and back to their roots. Some day in the not-too-distant future, we hope you will get to experience Obon the way it has been celebrated for centuries.

Photo Credits:

Top photo:  Atul Vinayak on Unsplash

Previously-used photos:

 ” Bon Odori, a style of dancing performed during Obon, Japan; August 2014 (03) ” by jinkemoole licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.. (cc-by-2.0) No changes or modifications made. Wikimedia Commons Link

Bon Odori, a style of dancing performed during Obon, Japan; August 2014 (04) ” by jinkemoole licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.. (cc-by-2.0) No changes or modifications made. Wikimedia Commons Link

All other content (text) created by the original author and © 2021 MUSUBI by Borderlink

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