Celebrating With Spirits (Literally) By: itserinne 1 comment

   I was born during the month of August, while most Filipinos would remember this month as a month of eternal rain (okay, I might be exaggerating), I often associate my birthday to the Buddhist's (more popular in Japan than anywhere else) Obon Festival because I'm weird like that.

   As per Wiki : Obon or just Bon is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist-Confucian custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves, and when the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the household altars. It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori. 

Obon during the late Edo Period

   So, in short my birth month is a Ghost month. It's actually not the entire month of August. Obon usually occurs between July 15 to August 15. Usually the end celebrations starts on August 15 and last for 3 days. Japanese have celebrated this festival since at least the 7th Century A.D. Although many events have changed and now go by different names, certain traditions remain. During the festival, everyone cleans their home and provide special foods such as fruits and vegetables in front of a “butsudan” (The Buddhist families altar). The butsudan is decorated with flowers and paper lanterns (chouchin) and with precise and delicate offerings.

   One of the common events during Obon is the Bon Odori originates from the story of Maha Maudgalyayana (Mokuren), a disciple of the Buddha, who used his supernatural powers to look upon his deceased mother. He discovered she had fallen into the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and was suffering. Greatly disturbed, he went to the Buddha and asked how he could release his mother from this realm. Buddha instructed him to make offerings to the many Buddhist monks who had just completed their summer retreat, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. The disciple did this and, thus, saw his mother's release. He also began to see the true nature of her past unselfishness and the many sacrifices that she had made for him. The disciple, happy because of his mother's release and grateful for his mother's kindness, danced with joy. From this dance of joy comes Bon Odori or "Bon Dance", a time in which ancestors and their sacrifices are remembered and appreciated. 

    The festival ends with Toro Nagashi, or the floating of lanterns. Paper lanterns are illuminated and then floated down rivers symbolically signaling the ancestral spirits' return to the world of the dead. This ceremony usually culminates in a fireworks display.

 Toro Nagashi (floating paper lanterns) are also common customs of Obon. People gather at the river on the evening and send off a tiny floating paper lantern, lit by a candle inside, each lantern lantern representing one ancestor as he or she joins the cavalcade of lanterns, floating down the river to the sea. Traditional Japanese beliefs state that humans come from water, so the lanterns represent their bodies returning to water (traditionally the sea in this case) 

   Since I'm an avid anime fan... All this knowledge (the above accounts are technical knowledge, okay I've researched them. Thanks to Wiki and Google) are just taken from anime. My favourite traditional practice during the month of August and Obon is the 100 Ghost Stories.

   In Japan, the month of August is the time where people worship their ancestors through an event called 'O-bon'. Prior to this, the event has become the gateway for the dead, as well as frightening stories about them. After a long time of worship, high summer is the season for ghosts.

  For this event you only need: A quiet room, candles, contestants, stories, a bowl of water. And it was said that you shouldn't break the story telling until you reached 100 or else something bad would happen. (Refer to XXXHolic's Episode 10)

Woodblock prints depicting ghosts

  Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai (A Gathering of One Hundred Supernatural Tales) was a popular parlour game during Edo period Japan.

The game was a simple one. In a room, as night fell, one hundred candles were lit. Guests and players gathered around the candles, taking turns telling kaidan. After each kaidan, a single candle was extinguished, and the room slowly grew darker and darker. The process was an evocation, with the final candle believed to summon a supernatural entity.

The origin of the game is unknown. It is thought that it was first played amongst the samurai class as a test of courage, and later became fashionable amongst the townsmen.

A true popular phenomenon, the popularity of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai combined with new printing technology created a boom in the publication of kaidan-themed books collecting appropriate tales from every corner of Japan and China. Books in this genre often used the term Hyakumonogatari in the title, and in fact the published tale’s popularity continued long after the fad for the game had faded.  

   Last year, I celebrated with my co-ghost month birthday celebrants. For this year, it's a bit solemn. Spent most of the day with Padre Pio and two of my soul sisters, Orange and Lany. It didn't rain during the day, but when evening came it rained quite heavily even after I prayed for it not to rain (maybe I should've done a sun dance and the cliche 'alay ng itlog' thing). 

PG Mode ON! (*^^*)

   Maybe my birthday wasn't as eventful as the actual Obon Festival, but my cousin and I did enjoy telling horror stories, when I say 'horror stories' those are stories of our childhood. Hmm... so maybe it wasn't as uneventful as I thought.