Bonkure 盆暮れ (Bon Festival)

Bon festival [お盆/おぼん]  is the Buddhist event to hold memorial services for ancestors.

DESCRIPTION
Bon festival is Japanese traditional event. It’s held between August 13th to 16th.
In this season, it is believed that ancestors are come back from the afterworld.
So, in August 13th, families go and visit graves. In the night, they burn the welcome bonfire in front of the house and put the paper lantern in the house to invite the ancestors spirits.
For ancestors, we make an offering(vegetables and fruits), and line up the Buddhist memorial tablet to worship the ancestors.
In August 15th or 16th, we burn the farwell fire and see off the ancestors spirit.

EVENT
There are some events in Bon festival seasons.
“Bon festival dance”
This is the most common event and many dances are held in each religions.
The reason why we do this dance is to calm the spirits of ancestors.

“The Great Farewell Bonfire Event in Kyoto”
This is one of the famous see off event, which held in Kyoto.

“Festivals of Lantern”
This is also the famous event which is the ceremony of floating lanterns on the water at the Bon festival.