Crazy Summer Festivals

If summer festival season is at an end, tonight was the finale! After a yummy tonkatsu dinner (my favorite!) we attended Funekko Nagashi. Today was the last day of Obon – a multi-day holiday to honor the dead. Many people use the time to return to their hometown, clean the family grave, and make offerings to their ancestors. From the extra grocery store hours and flowers for sale everywhere, Obon seems to be kind of Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, and Day of the Dead all-in-one. From what I’ve read, the Japanese believe that the spirits of the ancestors return to this world on the first day of Obon and leave again on the final day. Funekko Nagashi is kind of a farewell bonfire which is said to guide the spirits back to the other world.
  

In Morioka the end of Obon is particularly spectacular. 14 different neighborhood groups and organizations built elaborate wooden dragon boats and laced them with fireworks. At sunset, groups of half-naked, often painted men set the boats on fire and then towed the burning boats down the Kitakami River. It was quite a site! Definitely the craziest festival I’ve ever seen.

two of the boats before they entered the river

the mostly naked guys are a team who already burned their boat

After all the boats were burned, there was a big fireworks display and supposedly they set hundreds of paper lanterns out to drift in the river. We missed that part due to excessive whining. Giving us yet another reason not to bring a 3-year old on a semester abroad, Catie started screeching “I want to go HOME” around boat number 6, so we didn’t get to see all of the boats burn or the awesome hour-long fireworks display afterwards. The part we did see was pretty cool- here’s a little video of one of the boats…