Obon
The Festival of the Dead, welcoming the spirits of ancestors back to the living world.
Obon is most widely observed around August 13 to 16. Tokyo and parts of eastern Japan keep it around July 15, and some regions, including Okinawa, follow the old lunar date (15th day of the seventh lunar month), which moves each year.
When Is Obon?
Obon is most widely observed around August 13 to 16. Tokyo and parts of eastern Japan keep it around July 15, and some regions, including Okinawa, follow the old lunar date (15th day of the seventh lunar month), which moves each year.
Because the Gregorian date changes from year to year, check a calendar published by the tradition or your local community for this year's date.
Why It Matters
Obon is the annual Japanese Buddhist festival honoring the spirits of one's ancestors, rooted in the Ullambana tradition and blended with older Japanese folk customs of ancestor veneration. It is traditionally 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 fifteenth day of the seventh month is the Pravarana Day for the assembled Sangha of the ten directions. For the sake of fathers and mothers of seven generations past, as well as for fathers and mothers of the present who are in distress, you should prepare an offering...”
, Ullambana Sutra (Buddhist Text Translation Society) ↗