OBON FESTIVAL
Obon is an annual festival celebrated in honor of one’s ancestors for over 500 years in Japan. The festival is considered an “Invitation to the Dead” and is believed to be the time spirits revisit our household alters. In recent times, the Obon festival has evolved as a fun tradition celebrated with large gatherings, family reunions, and bright lanterns despite its dark roots.
Urabon, condensed to Obon is the Japanese transliteration of the Sanskrit word ‘Ullambana’ which means to hang upside down and is used to imply the unbearable pain or excruciating suffering, either physical or spiritual when one is hung upside down. For the Japanese, this festival is held to free their ancestors’ spirits of pain and suffering.
The exact origin of this Buddhist tradition is debatable but the story behind the ritual is believed to have originated in India, then spread to other parts of South Asia, eventually making its way to Japan. Maha Maudgalyayana (Mokuren), a disciple of the Buddha, and a priest renowned for his supernatural powers used his powers to look upon his deceased mother. He then discovered that she had fallen into the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and was being tormented. Greatly distressed, he went to the Buddha and asked how he could free his mother from this torture. The Buddha instructed him to make offerings to Buddhist monks who had completed their summer retreat and returned on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. Upon doing as advised, Mokuren saw his mother's release from the suffering and danced joyously after the incident. Therefore, Obon is observed on the fifteenth day of the seventh month by Japanese Buddhists. It is widely celebrated on a different date altogether, from August 13 to 16 depending upon the region.
During the festivities, mukae-bon is performed where people bring chochin (paper lanterns) to their family's gravesites to call their ancestors' spirits back home.
Bon Odori or "Bon Dance" a traditional folk dance is performed, a time during which ancestors and their sacrifices are remembered and appreciated. The sky is lit with beautiful floating lanterns or 'toro nagashi' in Japanese. These lanterns burn out and float down a river that meets the ocean. This ritual is performed to symbolically send off their ancestors' spirits into the sky with lanterns.
On the last day of Obon, families assist their ancestor's spirits back to their graves, by hanging chochin lanterns, painted with their family crest on them. These rituals vary from region to region.
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