Tonight we heard the sounds of beating taiko drums and fireworks outside our home. It could have only meant one thing...Obon!
Obon, the honoring of ancestral spirits.The three-day holiday on Okinawa is a time for locals to pay homage to their ancestors with visits to the family’s Buddhist altars and tombs.
The first day of Obon, Unkeh, is a time for families to gather at the primary family residence to purify the home and its altar. Family members will place fruit, water, sake, tea and a pair of sugar cane stalks on the altar in preparation for the visiting spirits. In the evening, the family lights candles both at the altar and the gateway to the house to invite the spirits inside. Eisa, is performed in streets everywhere. Eisa is a traditional dance to entertain the visiting spirits. Obon is also a time of gift-giving, and a time for sharing. Children and grandchildren return from mainland Japan to Okinawa to pay homage to the ancestors.
The final day of Obon, is Uukui, a time when the family gathers and celebrates with a lavish dinner before preparing to send the ancestral spirits back to the other world. A variety of foods are offered and special paper money, Uchikabi, is burned as an offer to the spirits for use in the other world. About midnight, family members will remove the offerings from the altar and move them to the family gate in front of the home. Incense will be lit, the uchikabi burned, and the families say goodbye to the ancestral spirits for another year. Okinawa tradition is that spirits will carry the uchikabi money with them, and use the sugar cane stalks as walking sticks.
