Gozan no Okuribi

This article is about the festival Gozan no Okuribi. For the sumo wrestler, see Daimonji Kenji.
Daimonji
Hidari Daimonji without fire

Gozan no Okuribi (五山送り火), more commonly known as Daimonji (大文字), is a festival in Kyoto, Japan. It is the culmination of the Obon festival on August 16, in which five giant bonfires are lit on mountains surrounding the city. It signifies the moment when the spirits of deceased family members, who are said to visit this world during O-Bon, are believed to be returning to the spirit world—thus the name Okuribi (送り火) (roughly, "send-off fire").

History

The origins of the festival are obscure, but it is believed to be ancient. Specific families have the hereditary duty of organizing all the logistics of the bonfires, and they spend many hours annually providing volunteer labor to maintain this tradition.

Schedule

Starting at 8 PM, the giant bonfires are lit, each with a distinctive shape. Three of the fires form giant Chinese characters, and two form familiar shapes. The characters, their locations, meanings, and the lighting times are:

The most famous—and the first to be lit—is the character dai (大), on Kyoto's Daimonji-yama (大文字山 daimonjiyama). The other four fires are lit at five to ten-minute intervals, and by 8:30, all the characters can be seen. Each bonfire lasts for 30 minutes.

Viewing

The best place to view the festival is from the Nakagyo Ward, in the center of the city. Many hotels have Daimonji specials where, for a fee, you can see all five fires. Many people also like to go to the Kamo River, between Sanjo and Imadegawa Streets, for an excellent view of the initial fires.

Latitude and longitude

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gozan no okuribi.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, November 18, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.