O-Bon Festival (Festival of the Souls)
Acknowledgements
January
Tondo Festival
Happy New Year! Akemashite omedetō!
There was nothing as joyful in our childhood as New Year’s Day, and we could hardly wait for it to come. On New Year’s Day, families and friends enjoyed delicious New Year’s food and had fun together all day long. Outside, we flew kites, spun colorful tops, and played hanetsuki (a game like badminton). Inside, we played sugoroku (similar to backgammon) and card games like karuta.
One evening in the middle of January, our village celebrated the Tondo Festival. The men built a tall tower with bundles of bamboo. Then everyone brought their used New Year’s decorations and the whole thing was lit on fire. People prayed for their family’s happiness and good health through the year. It was very exciting to see the big flames and sparks lighting up the dark sky. We toasted kagami-mochi (large rice cakes) on the fire embers, and everyone ate them for good luck in the coming year. Somehow, the rice cakes always turned out to be charred ... but we didn’t mind eating them anyway!
New Year Traditions
Kakizome (Calligraphy)
Traditionally, on January 2nd, children write special New Year’s calligraphy. The words they choose symbolize their wishes or resolutions for the New Year. For example, two of the words written here are: shinsetsu (“kindness”) and tomodachi (“friend”).
Nenga-jo (New Year’s Cards)
People send nenga-jo, postcards with New Year Greetings, to family and friends. Usually, they write standard phrases and a few sentences about what they did in the past year, or their New Year resolutions. It’s also common to decorate the card with the Zodiac animal of the year. For example, 2010 is the Year of the Tiger.
Usually, the postman brings a big delivery of all the postcards sent to each family from their friends and relatives from all over the country. It’s fun to read them all together!
Daruma Doll
Daruma is said to have brought Zen Buddhism to Japan. Legend tells that he sat in a cave meditating for so long that he lost the use of his arms and legs! This is why Daruma dolls are round, and if you try to knock them over, they go upright again. Daruma represents determination. Often, people get a Daruma doll when they want to achieve some goal. They write their goal on the back, color in one eye, and then do everything they can to achieve that goal. When they do, they color in the second eye to celebrate their success!
New Year Games
Hanetsuki & Koma
In hanetsuki, which is similar to badminton, two players hit a birdie back and forth with a decorated wooden paddle called hagoita. The one who lets it drop to the ground gets a black ink mark on her face!
Koma, or spinning tops, is fun to play. The tops are spun either by hand or with a string. In one game each player spins their top within a circle and tries to knock the other top out of bounds.
Tako-age (Kite-flying)
Japanese kites are made of paper glued onto a thin bamboo frame. They come in many different shapes and sizes, and are decorated with faces of samurai or kabuki actors, or with calligraphy.
Fukuwarai
In this game, one person is blindfolded, and then tries to put all of the parts (mouth, nose, eyes, eyebrows) onto a blank face. It’s fun to see the comical results!
February
February was the coldest month and we had many snowy days.
Our school was very old and the classrooms were drafty and cold in the winter. We warmed our hands at the big charcoal brazier in the classroom but, as soon as it was time for recess, we rushed outside for snowball fights. When we came home after school, we crawled under the kotatsu, a heated table with a quilt to cover your lap. At the kotatsu we did homework, read books, played games, and took naps. Also, the whole family sat together and ate meals there. In those days, the kotatsu and charcoal brazier were the only sources of heat in the house.
At bedtime, my mother put hot water bottles in everyone’s beds to keep us warm through the night. The coldest thing, though, was the portable water sprinkling can for washing hands that hung outside of the bathroom window. There was nothing as cold as this water, especially on a snowy day! Still, we always wished for a lot of snow to make a big snowman or a snow rabbit.
Winter Fun
Setsubun
In early February, Setsubun celebrates the coming of spring. People traditionally believe that evil spirits emerge when the seasons turn. So on this day, people open the doors of their houses and throw roasted soybeans out (or at a family member wearing an ogre’s mask) and shout, “Demons out! Fortune in!” This is said to help purify the home by driving away the evil spirits and bad