Obon — Buddhist Feast of Ancestors
Traditional and popular festivals · Everywhere in Japan — anchoring in Kyoto: the city and the mountains surrounding it for the Gozan no Okuribi of August 16
The festival
Obon is one of Japan's most important traditions: for a few days in the summer, the spirits of the ancestors are supposed to return to their family home, and the whole country returns to its hometown. Families clean the house and the graves, lay offerings in front of the domestic Buddhist altar and place the shoryouma, cucumber horses and eggplant oxen supposed to carry the spirits, quickly to go and slowly to return.
The Bon Odori dances in a circle, about 500 years old dance intended to welcome and accompany the ancestors, and on the last night the spirits are guided towards the afterlife with the floating lanterns of Toro Nagashi. In Kyoto, the festival culminates on August 16 with the Gozan no Okuribi: five giant lights in the shape of characters and symbols — whose great character "Dai" — are successively lit on the mountains surrounding the city.
Good to know
Institutional references: Japan National Tourism Organization — JNTO (japan.travel) for Obon; Kyoto City Tourism Association / Kyoto Travel (kyoto.travel) and Kyoto University for Gozan No Okuribi of 16 August. Official contacts: under audit.