Bon Festival

In Japan, the bon festival takes place every summer in mid-August. It is a Buddhist festival held to welcome back the spirits of the dead, and it is believed the spirits returen to their families during the festival; therefore, Japanese people visit their relatives' graves to pray and make offerings of flowers and incense.


Our families went to our relatives' graves today, too.


We pasted some pictures in blog.








Japanese Grave
A family name is carvesd on the center of the grave in kanji.

Temple

Generally, there are many graves in temples, and monks in the temples manage them to maintain cleaning.

Many trees and flowers are planted in temples. The trees of the pictures are Pine trees(In Japanese, we say Matsu.) We were looking for Cherry trees....but we could not find them. Usually there should be cherry trees in temples.


Matsu Japan
www.matsu-japan.jp