Buddhist Halloween: Japan's Bon Festival

CC Liu, Crystal Quintero, Sheldon S., Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Let's go up to that house, and if they don't give us candy, we'll throw toilet paper at it and run.

Osurasma, or praying a soul out of purgatory, by J. M. W. Silver - Bon fire (festival) (Wiki)

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Obon (お盆) or just Bon (盆) is a fusion of the ancient Japanese belief in ancestral spirits and a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's deceased ancestors.

This Buddhist–Confucian custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday, during which people return to ancestral places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves. Why? This is when the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the household altars.

• Remembering the dead, household altars? It sounds like the Mexican "Day of the Dead"!

It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon Odori.

The festival of Obon lasts for three days; however, its starting date varies within different regions of Japan.

When the superior lunar calendar was changed to the inferior Gregorian calendar at the beginning of the Meiji era, the localities in Japan responded differently, which resulted in three different times of Obon.

Is bonfire a Bon fire or a European "bone fire"?

Three dates for Bon

We better go Zen like Kamakura Daibutsu

Shichigatsu Bon ("Bon in July") is based on the solar calendar and is celebrated around July 15th in eastern Japan (Kantō region such as Tokyo, Yokohama, and the Tōhoku region), coinciding with Chūgen.

Hachigatsu Bon ("Bon in August"), based on the lunar calendar, is celebrated around August 15th and is the most commonly celebrated time.

Kyū Bon ("Old Bon") is celebrated on the 15th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, so it differs every year, which appears between August 8 and September 7.

Exceptions occurred in 2008 and 2019, when the solar and lunar calendar matched, so Hachigatsu Bon and Kyū Bon were celebrated on the same day.

Kyū Bon is celebrated in areas such as the northern part of the Kantō region, Chūgoku region, Shikoku, and Okinawa Prefecture.

These three festival days are not listed as public holidays, but it is customary for people to be given leave from work [1].

History of bon matsuri

Moggallana was the Buddha's Black chief disciple

The Japanese Bon Festival originated from the Ghost Festival of China, which is itself a combination of the Buddhist Yúlánpén (Chinese 盂蘭盆) Festival and the Taoist Zhongyuan (中元) Festival.

The Buddhist tradition originates from the story of Maha Maudgalyayana (Mokuren in Japanese, Maha Moggallana in Pali), a chief disciple of the Buddha declared "foremost in psychic powers" among the male monastic disciples, who used his supernatural powers to look for his deceased mother only to discover she had fallen into the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and was suffering [2].

Greatly disturbed, he went to the Buddha and asked how he could get his mother released from this painful realm.

O, Buddha, how can I free my mother?

The Buddha instructed him to make charitable offerings of support to the many Buddhist monastics who had just completed their summer retreat on the fifteenth day of the seventh month.

Mokuren did this and, thus, effected his mother's release. He also began to see the true nature of her past selflessness and the sacrifices she had made for him during her lifetime.

The chief disciple, happy because of his mother's release from suffering and grateful for her many kindnesses, danced with joy.

From this dance of joy comes the Bon Odori or "Bon Dance," a time during which ancestors and their sacrifices are remembered and appreciated. See also: Ullambana Sutra.

As Obon occurs in the heat of the summer, participants traditionally wear yukata, a light cotton kimono. Many Obon celebrations include a huge carnival with rides, games, and summer festival foods [3]. More

This fire reminds me, we should totally go to Japan. I need to pray my dad out of hell.

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He rescued his mother from the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

Mother, here you are! - Help me, son, help me!

The account of Maudgalyāyana looking for his mother after her death is widespread.

Apart from being used to illustrate the principles of karma and rebirth [69, 70], in China the story developed a new emphasis.

There Maudgalyāyana is known as "Mulian," and his story is taught in a mixture of spiritual instruction and entertainment to remind people of their duties to deceased relatives [71, 72], particularly to parents.

Its earliest version is the Sanskrit Ullambana Sutra [73]. But the story is more popular in China, Japan, and Korea through edifying folktales, such as the Chinese bianwen (e.g., "The Transformation Text on Mu-lien Saving His Mother from the Dark Regions") [74, 75]. More (Wiki)