Obon :: essays research papers

The Japanese cultural holiday Obon is short for Urabon and bunghole be traced etymologically to the Sanskrit word Ullambana, literally meaning to hang upside hatful. It implies that superstar must withstand unbearable suffering while existence hanged upside down. In the Buddhist script Urabon Sutra, a story is told where a son saves his fetch from Hell by making offerings to monks. Through the merits of his actions, his pay off was saved from Hell, ascended into divinity, and became a Buddha. Thusly, to save people from Hell (being hanged upside down), ones family and/or friends must make offerings to the deceased person. Obon is held usually in the mid(prenominal) August or July for a week in which the spirits of the deceased are supposed to come back to the land of the living. Being held since the seventh century, it is especially enjoyable to the Japanese people. One of its key features involves offering feed items to the deceased. Vegetables, fruits, rice, candy, rice win e, and among others are offered to the deceased. (But not only the deceased receive solid food special foods are made to give away to neighbor, friends, and family.) In addition, find is shown with floral decorations on the altar or gravesite along with incense anxious and prayer. Particularly, prayer is said for wayward spirits that have passed away in the recent year, as its said they need more management to find their way. The Festival of the Dead, as its sometimes called, is a celebratory and social event. While this is not a national or overt holiday, plenty of people from the city go back to their hometowns to polish up and clean their ancestors gravesites.On the actual day of the celebration, a menagerie of lanterns, in a multitude of colors, are hung all some the town and specifically on ho workouts. The logic is this since spirits come back, the lanterns leave guide them to and from the spirit world. However a more realistic use for these is lighting the area where t he bon dances will take place. The bon dances have religious undertones also. In the story above, the dancing signifies the joy and elation the son felt when his mother was offered divinity. Now, in the center of town, a makeshift tower is erected. A Taiko drummer is on top and speakers play special Obon music and dancers below dressed in yukata (summer) kimonos circle below in dance.