お盆 (Obon)

Obon, or お盆, is a Buddhist period for honoring ancestors, usually observed on 13–16 August in most of Japan, though some areas, including parts of Tokyo, keep it on 13–16 July. Many people travel back to their family home, visit the family grave, wash the stone, pull weeds, and offer flowers, incense, water, and seasonal fruit. At home, families prepare a Buddhist altar with memorial tablets and offerings; in many households they also set out cucumber and eggplant figures called 精霊馬, small “spirit horses” and “cows” meant to carry the spirits quickly in and slowly back. On the first evening, some light a welcoming fire, 迎え火, near the entrance.

During Obon evenings, neighborhood Bon Odori dances are held at temples, shrine grounds, schoolyards, or public squares, often around a raised yagura tower with taiko drums. Dancers move in repeated circles to local songs, and the steps differ from place to place; people may wear yukata, especially at summer dance festivals. The closing rites mark the ancestors’ return. Families may light 送り火, a send-off fire, and in some regions float lanterns on rivers or the sea in 灯籠流し. Kyoto’s famous Gozan no Okuribi on 16 August lights giant hillside bonfires. Because so many people travel, roads, trains, and airports are especially crowded during the Obon holiday period.

The pack has 36 words spread across these domains.