Obon festival
During July (according to the solar calendar) or August (according to the lunar calendar), Japanese Buddhists honour their deceased relatives, believing that on this day the spirits of the ancestors return to this world. For three days, lanterns bearing the family crest are hung around the grave in the cemetery, special dances are performed and fireworks are set off to guide the spirits. Services are held in private houses and temples, and special foods and flowers are offered to the spirits of the ancestors.
Every family member tries to get to the family tomb at some point during this period so they can pay their respects to their ancestors. It is one of the few times in the year that grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandchildren can get together. It also means that transport in Japan is very crowded during this festival. Then at the end of Obon, lanterns are floated on rivers, lakes and the sea to guide the spirits back to their own world again.
This is a particularly poignant time in Japan because 6 August was the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and 9 August was when Nagasaki was bombed – heralding the end of the Second World War on 15 August. Every year, in Hiroshima, people float lanterns with prayers, thoughts, and messages of peace down the rivers in commemoration of the bombing of the city and the hundreds of thousands of people who died.
