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or just is a fusion of the ancient Japanese belief in ancestral spirits and a Japanese [[Buddhist|Buddhism]] custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. This syncretic folk Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves when the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the [[household altars|butsudan]]. It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as .
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 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.
Within the Japanese diaspora, the obon is usually tied to a fundraising event for a temple, church, and even non-sectarian Japanese community organizations. As a result, Japanese organizations within a particular region will often coordinate their dates on different weekends throughout the summer as the participants were not expected to be given leave during the workweek if the date fell on a weekday, and to allow for the greater community to support each other's events. It isn't uncommon for families in regions with a larger Japanese emigrant population to visit multiple festivals in support of the greater community.
Before Buddhism came to Japan, there was already a custom in place to beckon the deceased home to their families twice a year, both in spring and autumn, on 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 Maudgalyayana, a disciple of the Gautama Buddha, who used his supernatural powers to look upon his deceased mother only to discover she had fallen into the Realm of Preta and was suffering.What is Obon, 1998, Shingon Buddhist International Institute, California, http://www.shingon.org/library/archive/Obon.html. 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 the 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 Chinese terms are often described as deriving from Sanskrit meaning "hanging upside down", in reference to souls suffering in hell.Chen, K 1968, ‘Filial Piety in Chinese Buddhism’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, p. 88. However, the Sanskrit word was sparse, if at all, attested; in addition, it would be the present participle of verb Sanskrit ("to hang", intransitive), with no inherent "upside-down" meaning. ullamb-related entries at SpokenSanskrit.org website ullamb entry at Sanskrit Dictionary website
Moreover, neither the purported meaning of "hanging upside-down" nor the verifiable meaning of "hanging" match the semantics very well, given that the ceremonies are about helping the dead, closer in meaning to the "helping" sense of the Pali verb ("raising, helping"), present participle of ("to raise up, to help"). ulllumpana entry at The Pali Text Society's Pali-English Dictionary website 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 the origin was in fact Pali , a colloquial corruption of the Pali ("raising up; saving; helping"), and that the etymology was mistakenly attributed to Sanskrit.
The way in which 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 . The 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 . Some dances reverse during the dance, though most do not. At times, people face the and move towards and away from it. Still some dances, such as the Kagoshima dance, and the Tokushima , 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 (the "coal mining song") of old Miike Mine in Kyushu show the movements of miners, i.e. digging, cart pushing, lantern hanging, etc.; the above-mentioned 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 which may have colourful designs. Some require the use of small wooden clappers, or , during the dance.
The music that is played during the Bon dance is not limited to Obon music and ; some modern hits and kids' tunes written to the beat of the 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 the course of time, the original religious meaning has faded, and the dance has become associated with summer.
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 the souls back to the world of the dead. Both these fires mark the commencement (mukaebi) as well of the closing of the festival.Hur, Nam-Lin (2007). Death and Social Order in Tokugawa Japan: Buddhism, Anti-Christianity, and the Danka System. Harvard University Asia Center, 2007. p. 192. .
(literally "fortnight of the ancestors") is a 16–lunar day [[period|paksha]] in [[Hindu calendar]] when [[Hindus|Hinduism]] pay homage to their ancestors (), especially through food offerings. is considered by Hindus to be inauspicious, given the death rite known as or performed during the ceremony.
BCA temples in the U.S. typically celebrate Obon Festival with both religious obon observances and traditional dancing around a . Many temples also hold a cultural and food bazaar providing a variety of cuisine, art, and taiko performances to display features of Japanese culture and Japanese-American history to the greater community.Nakao, Annie, "Japanese Americans keeping Obon tradition alive", San Francisco Chronicle, Friday, July 8, 2005Schulze, Margaret, "Obon Story: Honoring ancestors, connecting to our community" , in the NikkeiWest newspaper, San Jose, California, Vol. 10, No. 14, July 25, 2002 "Obon Basics" – San Jose Taiko, California While obon festivals are usually coordinated between various organizations to allow participants to support fellow churches and temples within the Japanese-American community, as in Japan, regional variations to the dances can be found between different communities. Even some Japanese Christian churches in America have adopted some aspects of obon with cultural festivals in the spring tied to the Easter holiday.
The "Obon season" continues to play an important part of the present-day culture and life of Hawaii and are held among the five major islands on weekend evenings from June to August. They are held usually at Buddhist missions, but sometimes at Shinto 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 the event is non-sectarian. The songs played differ among the regions, however typically starts with from Kyushu, continues with songs such as , , Asatoya Yunta and Ashibina from Okinawa Prefecture, and modern dances such as the Baseball and for children, and typically ends with , celebrating abundant harvest. The participants, Japanese descendants and the people of all races, dance in a big circle around the , the central tower set up for the dance, from which recorded songs are broadcast. As on the mainland, bon dance lessons are given by volunteers in larger cities before the actual events. Bon Dance Overseas – Hawaii (in ten web pages) (in Japanese)
Japanese museums and other cultural organizations also hold summer festivals inspired by obon, such as the Morikami Museum in Florida, and the Japanese Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri, which has hosted an Obon festival over Labor Day weekend every year since 1977. Known as the Japanese festival, it is a collaboration with several Japanese-American organizations, and hosts thousands of people over a three-day period.
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