Everyone Celebrates on My Birthday...

The middle of August is the Obon Festival here in Japan, and the last day is August 15th, which convienently gave us something to do on my birthday this year. (The general consensus is that I turned 21...) To be honest, I know very little about the background of this festival. I know it's meant to celebrate the ancestors, especially those who have passed on recently, and that's about it. The method of celebration, however, is very pretty.

Last night just outside Nimitz park, people from all over town gathered to purchase little wooden/rice paper lanterns, which they then decorated with markers, lit, and sent out into the river to float away to the ocean and, presumably, the beyond where they would pass on messages to the aforementioned ancestors. The bridge over the river was decorated with lanterns, as was either bank. There were stands selling the usual fair style food: yakitori (meat on a stick), corn on the cob, ice cream, snow cones, and the like. In one tent, a monk chanted prayers, too. Some of the women and most of the little girls dressed in kimonos. It was very pretty to see, but very difficult to catch on film. This picture of the bridge was probably the best one I got.

So Zack and I wandered around the park enjoying the festivities and admiring all the lanterns floating along the river. He had made it a point, apparently, to tell everyone he could find that it was my birthday, including a guy from the AFN station who was trying to get interviews with people about the festival, and therefore insisted on interviewing me. Thank goodness I don't get TV, so I'll never see it (with any luck). We ate from the stands and then wandered up towards the main road where there was a sort of mini parade going on. Aparently, some sort of ceremony goes on at all the local shrines leading up to obon. Then the people who visit that shrine arrange to carry a long, boat-like object filled with lanterns in procession from the shrine to the river. At the beginning of each of these processions were two people who set off firecrackers that echoed all over town for several hours last night. They were followed by someone ringing a gong, followed by the float itself, and then several more people with firecrackers. Sorry, no pictures of this. They just look like glowing blurs in the shots I got. Since we've arrived in Japan, we've learned that Dory is afraid of loud booms (thunder and fireworks, for example), so we were not surprised to find her shaking when we arrived home, but we had a lot of fun watching the festivities. How many people get an all out festival for their birthday?