Arrival of o-bon season signals celebration and remembrance
Advertiser Staff
 |
| Buddhists observe o-bon season as a time to honor spirits of deceased family members and hang paper lanterns on graves to guide spirits back to the family tomb.
Advertiser library photo • Aug. 15, 1998 |
Buddhists observe this as a time to honor the spirits of family members who have died, hanging paper lanterns on graves to guide the spirits back to the ohaka, or family tomb, and setting up o-taba, specially painted wooden tablets bearing the names of ancestors, at local temples. The culmination of the celebration is the bon dance, when families and friends gather to dance both as a way of entertaining the souls of the deceased and in keeping with a tradition that held that dancing while chanting sutras is a way of freeing people from worldly concerns — a goal in Buddhism.
In Hawai'i, bon dances at temples and those sponsored by civic organizations, have become a fund-raising vehicle and are a time for cross-cultural sharing, with people touring temples, learning dances and enjoying the ethnic foods traditionally sold at the events.
