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Obon or just Bon is a fusion of the ancient Japanese belief in ancestral spirits and a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors.This 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.
The festival gained widespread popularity amongst the general public by the early Edo period, [5]: 19 when it became mixed with various Obon or Bon traditions (because Bon was held on 15th of the seventh month then), and developed into the modern Tanabata festival.
Members of a ritual may wear it to symbolize peace, humility, as well as acceptance. Odung is a type of body painting that is used for events such as marriage, childbirth, coming-of-age, and death. It may also be used to show a man's status in the Ekpo society. [26] This process is commonly used among women. It is often done after the birth of ...
Ritual masked and unmasked dances including varieties of kagura and dengaku. The highlight is the rivalry between a red-masked demon and a long-nose-masked tengu. After the demon is defeated he runs through the village throwing sweets and white powder which is said to protect from summer diseases. Toyohashi, Aichi
The ritual is held at Buddhist temples and there is a custom to place segaki-dana (rack for gaki) or gaki-dana (shelf for gaki) at home, present offerings (traditionally rice and water) for hungry ghosts who are wandering in this world as muenbotoke during Urabon'e or O-bon.
The sūtra became popular in China, Japan, and Korea, and led to the Yulan Hui (China) and Obon (Japan) festivals. [109] [74] [110] This festival probably spread from China to Japan in the seventh century, [111] and similar festivals have been observed in India (Avalamba), Laos and Vietnam.
A tale dealing with the origin of Matarajin's veneration in Japan is preserved in Keiran shūyōshū (溪嵐拾葉集; composed ca. 1311–1347). [10]When the great teacher Jikaku returned from China to transmit the ritual for the extended vocalized nenbutsu, on his ship he heard a voice in the empty sky, which told him: “My name is Matarajin, and I am a god of obstacles (shōgejin).
Rituals to celebrate adulthood have existed since ancient times, such as Genpuku (changing to adult clothing) and Fundoshi-iwai (loincloth celebration) for boys and Mogi (dressing up) and Keppatsu (tying the hair up) for girls. [3] Cultural anthropology and folklore studies treat such ceremonies as rites of passage (initiations).