The last day of Summer Vacation

My sons, who are 14, are having the last day of their summer vacation today. This year, it is just 3 weeks -- very short, isn't it?

They, as usual, have to work terribly hard toward the end of the vacation to finish their homework and get ready for school.

Junior high schools (middle schools) usually give a lot of homework (assignment) to their students, but not for the third-year students -- in stead of that , they will have an important exam to take in two days. Are they ready? Well, obviously they aren't.

In my prefecture, Nagano, children have to undergo high school entrance examination to be accepted to senior high school of their wish. It is almost the same throughout Japan.

O-bon

O-bon is a special holiday for Buddhist (some data show that nearly 80 % of the Japanese are Buddhist as well as Shintoist). It varies from area to area, but basically it is 3 ~4 days. In my area in Nagano, it is from August 13th through 16th ( 4 days). People would want to return to their home towns and meet their parents, brothers and sisters, and relatives. During this season, it is said that the spirits of the dead return their former homes and families.

In order to welcome the spirits, we build a small fire in the graveyard and our own yards, light a lantern to guide them to their former house. We entertain them by performing bon dances in communities and offer them food and drinks at home. The food would be seasonal veggies andfruits such as cucumbers, eggplants, pears, apples, peaches.

On the evening of the last day, we guide the spirits back to their graves. It is also for the visitors to their home towns to return to their present home, so the traffic on August 16th would be the worst of the year along with August 13th.

My daughter who lives apart from her family and my sister's family stay with us during the festival. It is one of the best time for us and for my children to meet their relatives who otherwise we would not have much chance to see.

Despite its great significance along with New Year's Day, o-bon is not national holidays. I think it is because of the Japan's policy of separation of religion and politics. Then, what we would usually do? We just take days off or take a short summer vacation from work to travel back home.

photos: Go-zan no Okuri-bi (in Kyoto) taken tonight and sent to me by my friend living in Kyoto

Five huge-scale bonfires are built on the hillsides surrounding Kyoto to send the souls of the ancestors back, which marks the end of the hot summer holiday