Obon or just Bon is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one’s ancestors. Obon is a shortened form of Ullambana. It is Sanskrit for “hanging upside down” and implies great suffering. This Buddhist-Confucian custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors’ graves, and when the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the household altars. It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years. The festival ends with the floating of lanterns. Paper lanterns are illuminated and then floated down rivers symbolically signaling the ancestral spirits’ return to the world of the dead. This ceremony usually culminates in a fireworks display.
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tangled among spirits
fire blossoms in the sky
upside down
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Ese' s Voice 