The Obon festival period in Japan is a few days, which I have often been told could be three, in the middle of August. The festival is celebrated at different times around Japan, and in the Kanto region, which includes the major cites of Tokyo and Yokohama, the revelry occurs around 15 August, at the height of summer, during the school summer holidays. While not an official holiday, many companies close down, and workers are usually given leave, anywhere from three to five days.
The notion that there is no defined date for Obon is surprising. Japan is a country that can only enter and be subsequently be out the annual rainy reason in June and July, whether there is a long string of sunny and dry days or not, when the Japan Meteorological Agency says so. The date that students are able to start wearing their summer uniform to school at the beginning of summer, or wear their winter uniform at the beginning of winter, is not actually defined by daily temperature, but by a date. It may be 35°C outside, but because it is 30 June, not 1 July, the winter uniform has to be worn. The start of the cherry blossom season is determined when one tree has five blossoms, not four or six, but five. So, the somewhat undetermined timing of the Obon festivities seems to be a tad un-Japanese.
Traditionally, Obon is a Buddhist – Confucian ritual where one honours the spirits if their ancestors. Today, it has developed into a family reunion holiday. People return to their parents’ home, often the city, town, or village where they grew up. Or, the holiday offers a chance just to get away, do something different; get on train, hop into the rarely-used-for-anything-else-but-to-go-to-the-supermarket car and get to the beach. And in Japan, this combination is sadly lethal.
Over the Obon holiday this year, the three days of the Obon holiday this year, there were 105 deaths on the roads and 48 deaths by drowning.
Ramblings and Ruminations 