On August 13th, which is Obon, a Buddhist holiday here in Japan, my friends and I attended the candle light festival in Koyasan. This was during the hottest part of the summer, at a time when the temperature was easily climbing its way into the 100s and the humidity was, like, 200 percent. Koyasan, however, was high up in the mountains and felt at least 15 degrees cooler.
The reason for the candle light festival is to light a path through the Buddhist cemetery (at night! eerie!), and lead the ghosts of ancestors to the main temple. And Japan claims to not celebrate Halloween! You will see food left on the altars, as it is believed that the ghosts are quite hungry and need to nosh on something before heading back to the grave (this makes me think of zombies).
When asked what they do with the leftover food after Obon, one of my students said, "A long time ago we put the food on wood rafts and set them on fire before sending them out to sea. Now we just throw it down the garbage disposal."
Please click here to see my pictures of Koysan's candle light festival.
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