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Obon
The Festival of the Dead — welcoming the spirits of ancestors back to the living world.
📅 August 13 – 3 days
✦ Why It Matters
Obon is the annual Buddhist-Shinto festival honoring the spirits of one's ancestors. It is believed that during these three days, the spirits of the deceased return to the world of the living to visit their families. It is a time of joy, reunion, and gratitude.
✦ How It Is Observed
Cleaning and decorating ancestral graves, lighting lanterns (chochin) to guide spirits home, Bon Odori folk dancing, floating lanterns on rivers (toro nagashi) to guide spirits back to the spirit world, family gatherings, cemetery visits.
✦ Sacred Text
“The ancestors are among us. In the lanterns we light, in the dances we dance, in the meals we share — their presence returns to bless and to be blessed.”
— Ancestor veneration tradition ↗