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44-572: The festival of Obon lasts for three days; however, its starting date varies within different regions of Japan. When the lunar calendar was changed to the Gregorian calendar at the beginning of the Meiji era , the localities in Japan responded differently, which resulted in three different times of Obon. Traditionally, Obon was celebrated on the 15th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. Obon

88-468: A yagura . Many temples also concurrently hold a cultural and food bazaar providing a variety of cuisine and art, also to display features of Japanese culture and Japanese-American history. Performances of taiko by both amateur and professional groups have recently become a popular feature of Bon Odori festivals. Obon festivals are usually scheduled anytime between July and September. Bon Odori melodies are also similar to those in Japan; for example,

132-526: A line of lights towards the cemetery to make sure the souls would find their way. On the third day of the festivities the souls are sent back to the other side with fires to see them off, this is referred to as Okuribi ("sending fire"), or, in a larger scale, the Burning of the Character Big in the mountain. In this practice small lanterns are used that float down a river. This symbolises the way of

176-560: A religious one. Pitri Paksha (literally "fortnight of the ancestors") is a 16–lunar day period in Hindu calendar when Hindus pay homage to their ancestors ( Pitrs ), especially through food offerings. Pitri Paksha is considered by Hindus to be inauspicious, given the death rite known as Śrāddha or Tarpana performed during the ceremony. In the Philippines , Filipinos of Japanese descent, with support from

220-608: A variety of Japanese food and drinks, art and dance, with the vast number of Japanese companies in Malaysia taking part to promote their products. Obon festivals are also celebrated in North America, particularly by Japanese-Americans or Japanese-Canadians affiliated with Buddhist temples and organizations. Buddhist Churches of America (BCA) temples in the U.S. typically celebrate Obon Festival with both religious Obon observances and traditional Bon Odori dancing around

264-525: A year, both in spring and autumn, in the night of the full moon. This custom already had a close connection to the ancestor-veneration characteristic it has in modernity. The Buddhist tradition originates from the story of Maha Maudgalyayana (Mokuren) , a disciple of the Buddha , who used his supernatural powers to look upon his deceased mother only to discover she had fallen into the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and

308-450: Is a collaboration with several Japanese-American organizations, and hosts thousands of people over a three-day period. The festival provides authentic Japanese music, art, dance, food, and entertainment including dancing around a yagura , sumo wrestling, taiko drums, bonsai demonstrations, music played on traditional instruments, several bazaars, food courts with authentic Japanese foods, tea ceremonies, candlelit lanterns released on

352-423: Is approximately 29 + 1 ⁄ 2  days, it is common for the months of a lunar calendar to alternate between 29 and 30 days. Since the period of 12 such lunations, a lunar year , is 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, 34 seconds (354.36707 days), purely lunar calendars are 11 to 12 days shorter than the solar year . In purely lunar calendars, which do not make use of intercalation,

396-647: Is celebrated by Japanese communities during the summer of the southern hemisphere. The biggest festival is held in Colonia Urquiza, in La Plata . It takes place on the sports ground of the La Plata Japanese School. The festival also includes taiko shows and typical dances. Obon Festival is celebrated every year in many Japanese communities all over Brazil, as Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside Japan . São Paulo

440-556: Is now observed during one of the following periods: These days are not listed as public holidays, but it is customary for people to be given leave. The Japanese Obon Festival is heavily influenced from the Ghost Festival of Buddhism, and the Chinese Taoist Zhongyuan ( 中元 ) Festival. Before Buddhism came to Japan there was already a custom in place to beckon the deceased home to their families twice

484-514: Is the first day of the month. Some are based on the first sighting of the lunar crescent , such as the Hijri calendar observed by most of Islam. Alternatively, in some lunisolar calendars, such as the Hebrew calendar and Chinese calendar , the first day of a month is the day when an astronomical new moon occurs in a particular time zone. In others, such as some Hindu calendars , each month begins on

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528-560: Is the main city of the Japanese community in Brazil, and also features the major festival in Brazil, with street odori dancing and matsuri dance. It also features taiko and shamisen contests. The festival also features a variety of Japanese food and drink, art and dance. Obon is also celebrated in communities of Japanese immigrants and their descendants and friends throughout South America: Obon festivals can be found in

572-467: Is to add an additional month every second or third year. Some lunisolar calendars are also calibrated by annual natural events which are affected by lunar cycles as well as the solar cycle. An example of this is the lunisolar calendar of the Banks Islands , which includes three months in which the edible palolo worms mass on the beaches. These events occur at the last quarter of the lunar month, as

616-463: The Bon Odori or "Bon Dance", a time during which ancestors and their sacrifices are remembered and appreciated. See also: Ullambana Sutra . In recorded history Obon was practised as a Buddhist tradition first under the reign of Empress Suiko (592—628). By 733 it seems to have been introduced as a customary Buddhist holiday in Japan within the court. The Japanese word obon is composed of

660-563: The solar year . The most widely observed purely lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar . A purely lunar calendar is distinguished from a lunisolar calendar , whose lunar months are brought into alignment with the solar year through some process of intercalation  – such as by insertion of a leap month . The details of when months begin vary from calendar to calendar, with some using new , full , or crescent moons and others employing detailed calculations. Since each lunation

704-502: The spirits of the dead, the style of celebration varies in many aspects from region to region. Each region has a local dance, as well as different music. The music can be songs specifically pertinent to the spiritual message of Obon, or local min'yō folk songs. Consequently, the Bon dance appears different from region to region. Hokkaidō is known for the folk-song " Sōran Bushi " . The song " Tokyo Ondo" takes its namesake from

748-566: The "helping" sense of the Pali verb ullumpana ("raising, helping"), present participle of ullumpati ("to raise up, to help"). This suggests that explanations of the dead hanging upside-down in hell are more likely to be folk etymologies based on a mistaken connection to the Sanskrit verb, rather than a more direct semantic link to the Pali. Alternatively, Takakusu Junjiro propounded that

792-419: The Bon dance events are held among the five major islands ( Kauai , Oahu , Molokai , Maui and Hawaii ) on weekend evenings from June to August. They are held usually at Buddhist missions, but sometimes at Shintoist missions or at shopping centres. At some Buddhist missions, the dance is preceded by a simple ritual where the families of the deceased in the past year burn incense for remembrance, but otherwise

836-697: The Philippine Nikkei Jin Kai Inc., Philippine Nikkei Jin Kai International School, Mindanao Kokusai Daigaku, and various other Japanese Filipino-based organizations, hold an Obon festival every year along with other Japanese-based Filipino festivals, to celebrate the ancestors of Filipinos of Japanese descent, and to celebrate the friendship between Japan and the Philippines. In Argentina, the Obon Festival

880-423: The Sanskrit word was sparsely, if at all, attested; in addition, it would be the present participle of verb Sanskrit ullamb ("to hang", intransitive), with no inherent "upside-down" meaning. Moreover, neither the purported meaning of "hanging upside-down" nor the verifiable meaning of "hanging" match the semantics very well, given that the urabon ceremonies are about helping the dead, closer in meaning to

924-621: The capital of Japan. "Gujo Odori" in Gujō in Gifu Prefecture is famous for all night dancing. " Gōshū Ondo " is a folk song from Shiga Prefecture . Residents of the Kansai area will recognize the famous " Kawachi Ondo " . Tokushima in Shikoku is very famous for its " Awa Odori " , and in the far south, one can hear the "Ohara Bushi" of Kagoshima . The way in which

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968-587: The course of time, the original religious meaning has faded, and the dance has become associated with summer. The Bon dance performed in the Okinawa Islands is known as eisā . Similarly, the Yaeyama Islands have Angama . The altar in Japanese households, kamidana , are given care by the families with decorations and offerings such as flowers and straw figures of animals and food. They do this not only for their own deceased but for

1012-437: The dance Tankō Bushi from Kyushu is also performed in the U.S. In California, due to the diffusion of Japanese immigration, Bon Odori dances also differ from Northern to Southern California, and some are influenced by American culture, such as "Baseball Ondo ". The "Obon season" is an important part of the present-day culture and life of Hawaii . It was brought there by the plantation workers from Japan, and now

1056-480: The dance is performed is also different in each region, though the typical Bon dance involves people lining up in a circle around a high wooden scaffold made especially for the festival called a yagura . The yagura is usually also the bandstand for the musicians and singers of the Obon music. Some dances proceed clockwise, and some dances proceed counter-clockwise around the yagura . Some dances reverse during

1100-702: The dance, though most do not. At times, people face the yagura and move towards and away from it. Still some dances, such as the Kagoshima Ohara dance, and the Tokushima Awa Odori , simply proceed in a straight line through the streets of the town. The dance of a region can depict the area's history and specialization. For example, the movements of the dance of the Tankō Bushi (the "coal mining song") of old Miike Mine in Kyushu show

1144-534: The day after the full moon. The length of each lunar cycle varies slightly from the average value. In addition, observations are subject to uncertainty and weather conditions. Thus, to minimise uncertainty, there have been attempts to create fixed arithmetical rules to determine the start of each calendar month. The best known of these is the Tabular Islamic calendar : in brief, it has a 30-year cycle with 11 leap years of 355 days and 19 years of 354 days. In

1188-558: The event is non-religious. The songs played differ among the regions - one or two hour Bon dance in the Western part of the Big Island (in and around Kailua Kona ), for example, typically starts with Tankō Bushi , continues with songs such as Kawachi Otoko Bushi (using wooden clappers), Yukata Odori (using tenugui given at the donation desk), Asatoya Yunta and Ashibina from Okinawa Prefecture (reflecting

1232-474: The fact that many Okinawan descendants live in Hawaii), Pokémon Ondo for children, zumba songs for the young, Beautiful Sunday , etc., and ends with Fukushima Ondo , celebrating abundant harvest. The participants, Japanese descendants and the people of all races, dance in a big circle around the yagura , the central tower set up for the dance, from which recorded songs are broadcast and, most of

1276-411: The heat of the summer, participants traditionally wear yukata , a kind of light cotton kimono . Many Obon celebrations include a huge carnival with rides, games, and summer festival foods. The Korean version of the Obon celebration is known as Baekjung . Participants present offerings at Buddhist shrines and temples, and masked dances are performed. It is as much an agricultural festival as

1320-461: The honorific prefix o- and the word bon . The bon portion is from the longer Japanese names Urabon ( 盂蘭盆 ) or Urabon'e ( 盂蘭盆会 ) , in turn from the Chinese terms 盂蘭盆 ( Yúlánpén ) or 盂蘭盆會 ( Yúlánpénhuì ). The Chinese terms are often described as deriving from Sanskrit ullambana meaning "hanging upside down", in reference to souls suffering in hell. However,

1364-567: The lake in the gardens Japanese garden and much more. In Salt Lake City, Utah , the Salt Lake Buddhist Temple holds an Obon festival in mid-July with food, temple tours, taiko performances, and a Japanese goods store. Lunar calendar A lunar calendar is a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the Moon 's phases ( synodic months , lunations ), in contrast to solar calendars , whose annual cycles are based on

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1408-519: The long term, it is accurate to one day in about 2,500 solar years or 2,570 lunar years. It also deviates from observation by up to about one or two days in the short term. The algorithm was introduced by Muslim astronomers in the 8th century to predict the approximate date of the first crescent moon, which is used to determine the first day of each month in the Islamic lunar calendar . Most calendars referred to as "lunar" calendars are in fact lunisolar calendars . Their months are based on observations of

1452-532: The lunar cycle, with periodic intercalation being used to restore them into general agreement with the solar year. The solar " civic calendar " that was used in ancient Egypt showed traces of its origin in the earlier lunar calendar, which continued to be used alongside it for religious and agricultural purposes. Present-day lunisolar calendars include the Chinese , Korean , Vietnamese , Hindu , Hebrew and Thai calendars. The most common form of intercalation

1496-561: The lunar months cycle through all the seasons of a solar year over the course of a 33–34 lunar-year cycle (see, e.g., list of Islamic years ). A lunisolar calendar was found at Warren Field in Scotland and has been dated to c. 8000 BC , during the Mesolithic period . Some scholars argue for lunar calendars still earlier— Rappenglück in the marks on a c.  17,000  year-old cave painting at Lascaux and Marshack in

1540-524: The marks on a c.  27,000  year-old bone baton—but their findings remain controversial. Scholars have argued that ancient hunters conducted regular astronomical observations of the Moon back in the Upper Palaeolithic . Samuel L. Macey dates the earliest uses of the Moon as a time-measuring device back to 28,000–30,000 years ago. Lunar and lunisolar calendars differ as to which day

1584-452: The movements of miners, i.e. digging, cart pushing, lantern hanging, etc.; the above-mentioned Soran Bushi mimics the work of fishermen such as hauling in the nets. All dancers perform the same dance sequence in unison. There are other ways in which a regional Bon dance can vary. Some dances involve the use of different kinds of fans, others involve the use of small towels called tenugui which may have colourful designs. Some require

1628-412: The origin was in fact Pali ullumbana , a colloquial corruption of the Pali ullumpana ("raising up; saving; helping"), and that the etymology was mistakenly attributed to Sanskrit. Bon Odori ( 盆踊り ) , meaning simply "Bon dance", is a style of dancing performed during Obon. It is a folk entertainment, which has a history of nearly 600 years. Originally a Nenbutsu folk dance to welcome

1672-444: The souls back to the world of the dead. Both these fires mark the commencement (mukaebi) as well of the closing of the festival. Another significant ritual practiced during the Obon festival in Japan is to craft a cucumber horse and eggplant cow, known as shōryō uma ( 精霊馬 , "spirit horse") or ushi uma ( 牛馬 , "cow horse") , that act as a vessel for the ancestors to come back home and return, respectively. As Obon occurs in

1716-424: The souls of the households who no longer have relatives within their vicinity. The offerings are placed in front of the tablets with the deceased person's name on it. Families who have lost a family member during a current year are known to give special attention to the preparations of Obon . They will light a small fire on the first evening of the festival to guide the souls back home. In the past people would lit

1760-525: The state of Selangor, is the brainchild of the Japanese Expatriate & Immigrant's Society in Malaysia. In comparison to the celebrations in Japan, the festival is celebrated on a much smaller scale in Penang, Selangor and Sabah, and is less associated with Buddhism and more with Japanese culture. Held mainly to expose locals to a part of Japanese culture, the festival provides the experience of

1804-527: The states of Santa Catarina, São Paulo, Goiás, Amazonas, Pará (Tomé-Açu), Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pernambuco, Bahia, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul and Brasília. In Malaysia , Obon Festival is also celebrated every year in Esplanade, Penang , Shah Alam Stadium in Shah Alam , Selangor , and also Universiti Malaysia Sabah at Kota Kinabalu , Sabah . This celebration, which is a major attraction for

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1848-591: The time, the taiko group accompany the songs playing drums. In larger cities, Bon dance lessons are given by volunteers before the actual events. Some Japanese museums may also hold Obon festivals, such as the Morikami Museum in Florida. In St. Louis, Missouri , the Botanical Garden has hosted an Obon festival over Labor Day weekend every year since 1977. Known as the Japanese festival, it

1892-479: The use of small wooden clappers, or "kachi-kachi" , during the dance. The music that is played during the Bon dance is not limited to Obon music and min'yō ; some modern enka hits and kids' tunes written to the beat of the ondo are also used to dance to during Obon season. The Bon dance tradition is said to have started in the later years of the Muromachi period as a public entertainment. In

1936-651: Was suffering. Greatly disturbed, he went to the Buddha and asked how he could release his mother from this realm. Buddha instructed him to make offerings to the many Buddhist monks who had just completed their summer retreat on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. Mokuren did this and, thus, saw his mother's release. He also began to see the true nature of her past selflessness and the sacrifices she had made for him during her lifetime. The disciple, happy because of his mother's release from suffering and grateful for her many kindnesses, danced with joy. From this dance of joy comes

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