Obon(お盆?) or just Bon(盆?) is a Japanese Buddhist
custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. 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 and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori.
The festival of Obon lasts for three days; however its starting date varies within different regions of Japan. When the lunar calendar was changed to the Gregorian calendar at the beginning of the Meiji era,
the localities in Japan reacted differently and this resulted in three
different times of Obon. "Shichigatsu Bon" (Bon in July) is based on
the solar calendar and is celebrated around 15 July in eastern Japan (Kantō region such as Tokyo, Yokohama and the Tohoku region), coinciding with Chūgen.
"Hachigatsu Bon" (Bon in August) is based on the lunar calendar, is
celebrated around the 15th of August and is the most commonly
celebrated time. "Kyu Bon" (Old Bon) is celebrated on the 15th day of
the seventh month of the lunar calendar, and so differs each year. "Kyu
Bon" is celebrated in areas like the northern part of the Kantō region,
Chūgoku region, Shikoku, and the Ryukyu Islands. These three days are not listed as public holidays but it is customary that people are given leave.
Origin
Obon is a shortened form of Ullambana (Japanese: 于蘭盆會 or 盂蘭盆會, urabon'e). It is Sanskrit for "hanging upside down" and implies great suffering. The Japanese believe they should ameliorate the suffering of the "Urabanna".
Bon Odori originates from the story of Maha Maudgalyayana (Mokuren), a disciple of the Buddha, who used his supernatural powers to look upon his deceased mother. He discovered she had fallen into the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and was suffering. Greatly disturbed, he went to the Buddha
and asked how he could release his mother from this realm. Buddha
instructed him to make offerings to the many Buddhist monks who had
just completed their summer retreat, on the fifteenth day of the
seventh month. The disciple did this and, thus, saw his mother's
release. He also began to see the true nature of her past unselfishness
and the many sacrifices that she had made for him. The disciple, happy
because of his mother's release and grateful for his mother's kindness,
danced with joy. From this dance of joy comes Bon Odori or "Bon Dance", a time in which ancestors and their sacrifices are remembered and appreciated. See also: Ullambana Sutra.
As Obon occurs in the heat of the summer, participants traditionally wear yukata, or light cotton kimonos. Many Obon celebrations include a huge carnival with rides, games, and summer festival food like watermelon.
The festival ends with Toro Nagashi,
or 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.
Bon Odori
Bon Odori(盆踊り?), meaning simply Bon dance is a style of dancing performed during Obon. Originally a Nenbutsu folk dance to welcome the spirits
of the dead, the style of celebration varies in many aspects from
region to region. Each region has a local dance, as well as different
music. The music can be songs specifically pertinent to the spiritual
message of Obon, or local min'yo folk songs. Consequently, the Bon dance will look and sound different from region to region. Hokkaidō is known for a folk-song known as "Soran Bushi." The song "Tokyo Ondo" takes its namesake from the capital of Japan. "Gujo Odori" in Gujō, Gifu prefecture is famous for all night dancing. "Gōshū Ondo" is a folk song from Shiga prefecture. Residents of the Kansai area will recognize the famous "Kawachi ondo." Tokushima in Shikoku is very famous for its "Awa Odori," or "fool's dance," and in the far south, one can hear the "Ohara Bushi" of Kagoshima.
The way in which the dance is performed is also different in each
region, though the typical Bon dance involves people lining up in a
circle around a high wooden scaffold made especially for the festival
called a yagura.
The yagura is usually also the bandstand for the musicians and singers
of the Obon music. Some dances proceed clockwise, and some dances
proceed counter-clockwise around the yagura. Some dances reverse during
the dance, though most do not. At times, people face the yagura and
move towards and away from it. Still some dances, such as the Kagoshima
Ohara dance, and the Tokushima Awa Odori, simply proceed in a straight
line through the streets of the town.
The dance of a region can depict the area's history and specialization. For example, the movements of the dance of the Tankō Bushi (the "coal mining song") of old Miike Mine
in Kyushu show the movements of miners, i.e. digging, cart pushing,
lantern hanging, etc. All dancers perform the same dance sequence in
unison.
There are other ways in which a regional Bon dance can vary. Some
dances involve the use of different kinds of fans, others involve the
use of small towels called tenugui which may have colorful
designs. Some require the use of small wooden clappers, or
"kachi-kachi" during the dance. The "Hanagasa Odori" of Yamagata is
performed with a straw hat that has been decorated with flowers.
The music that is played during the Bon dance is not limited to Obon music and min'yo; some modern enka hits and kids' tunes written to the beat of the "ondo" are also used to dance to during Obon season.
The Bon dance tradition is said to have started in the later years of the Muromachi period
as a public entertainment. In the course of time, the original
religious meaning has faded, and the dance has become associated with
summer.
To celebrate O-Bon in Okinawa, the eisa drum dance is performed instead.
Celebrations outside Japan
Argentina
In Argentina,
the Bon Festival is celebrated by Japanese communities during the
summer of the southern hemisphere. The biggest festival is held in
Colonia Urquiza, in La Plata Partido. It takes place on the sports ground of the La Plata Japanese School. The festival also includes taiko shows and typical dances.
Brazil
Bon Odori Festival is celebrated every year in many Japanese communities all over Brazil, as Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside of Japan. São Paulo is the main city of the Japanese community in Brazil, and also features the major festival in Brazil, with street odori dancing and matsuri dance. It also features Taiko and Shamisen contests. And, of course, this festival is also a unique experience of a variety of Japanese food & drinks, art and dance.
Korea
The Korean version of the Bon celebration is known as Baekjung.
Participants present offerings at Buddhist shrines and temples, and
masked dances are performed. It is as much an agricultural festival as
a religious one.
Malaysia
In Malaysia, Bon Odori Festivals are also celebrated every year in Penang, Matsushita Corp Stadium in Shah Alam, Selangor, and also Universiti Malaysia Sabah at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
This celebration, which is a major attraction for the state of
Selangor, is the brain child of the Japanese Expatriate &
Immigrant's Society in Malaysia. In comparison to the celebrations in
Japan, the festival is celebrated on a much smaller scale in Penang,
Selangor and Sabah, and is less associated with Buddhism and more with
Japanese culture. Held mainly to expose locals to a part of Japanese
culture, the festival provides the experience of a variety of Japanese
food and drinks, art and dance, with the vast number of Japanese
companies in Malaysia taking part to promote their products.
United States and Canada
The "Bon season" is an important part of the present-day culture and
life of Hawaii. Bon Odori festivals are also celebrated in North
America, particularly by Japanese-Americans or Japanese-Canadians
affiliated with Buddhist temples and organizations. Buddhist Churches of America
(BCA) temples in the U.S. typically celebrate Bon Odori with both
religious Obon observances and traditional Bon Odori dancing around a yagura.
Many temples also concurrently hold a cultural and food bazaar
providing a variety of cuisine and art, also to display features of
Japanese culture and Japanese-American history. Performances of taiko by both amateur and professional groups have recently become a popular feature of Bon Odori festivals.
Bon Odori festivals are usually scheduled anytime between July and
September. Bon Odori melodies are also similar to those in Japan; for
example, the dance Tankō Bushi from Kyushu
is also performed in the U.S. In California, due to the diffusion of
Japanese immigration, Bon Odori dances also differ from Northern to
Southern California, and some are influenced by American culture, such
as "Baseball Ondo".
Martin Luther King Jr. was born on
January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. King, both a Baptist minister and
civil-rights activist, had a seismic impact on race relations in the United
States, beginning in the mid-1950s. Among many efforts, King headed the SCLC.
Through his activism, he played a pivotal role in ending the legal segregation
of African-American citizens in the South and other areas of the nation,
as well as the creation of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King received the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1964, among several other honors. King was assassinated in April
1968, and continues to be remembered as one of the most lauded African-American
leaders in history, often referenced by his 1963 speech, "I Have a Dream."
Born as Michael King Jr. on January
15, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. was the middle child of Michael King Sr. and
Alberta Williams King. The King and Williams families were rooted in rural
Georgia. Martin Jr.'s grandfather, A.D. Williams, was a rural minister for
years and then moved to Atlanta in 1893. He took over the small, struggling
Ebenezer Baptist church with around 13 members and made it into a forceful
congregation. He married Jennie Celeste Parks and they had one child that
survived, Alberta. Michael King Sr. came from a sharecropper family in a poor
farming community. He married Alberta in 1926 after an eight-year courtship.
The newlyweds moved to A.D. Williams home in Atlanta.
Michael King Sr. stepped in as
pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church upon the death of his father-in-law in 1931.
He too became a successful minister, and adopted the name Martin Luther King
Sr. in honor of the German Protestant religious leader Martin Luther. In due
time, Michael Jr. would follow his father's lead and adopt the name himself.
Young Martin had an older sister,
Willie Christine, and a younger brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King. The King
children grew up in a secure and loving environment. Martin Sr. was more the
disciplinarian, while his wife's gentleness easily balanced out the father's
more strict hand. Though they undoubtedly tried, Martin Jr.’s parents couldn’t
shield him completely from racism. Martin Luther King Sr. fought against racial
prejudice, not just because his race suffered, but because he considered racism
and segregation to be an affront to God's will. He strongly discouraged any
sense of class superiority in his children which left a lasting impression on
Martin Jr.
Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia,
Martin Luther King Jr. entered public school at age 5. In May, 1936 he was
baptized, but the event made little impression on him. In May, 1941, Martin was
12 years old when is grandmother, Jennie, died of a heart attack. The event was
traumatic for Martin, more so because he was out watching a parade against his
parents' wishes when she died. Distraught at the news, young Martin jumped from
a second story window at the family home, allegedly attempting suicide.
King attended Booker T.
Washington High School, where he was said to be a precocious student. He
skipped both the ninth and eleventh grades, and entered Morehouse College in
Atlanta at age 15, in 1944. He was a popular student, especially with his
female classmates, but an unmotivated student who floated though his first two
years. Although his family was deeply involved in the church and worship, young
Martin questioned religion in general and felt uncomfortable with overly
emotional displays of religious worship. This discomfort continued through much
of his adolescence, initially leading
him to decide against entering the ministry, much to his father's dismay. But
in his junior year, Martin took a Bible class, renewed his faith and began to
envision a career in the ministry. In the fall of his senior year, he told his
father of his decision.
In 1948, Martin Luther King Jr. earned a sociology degree from Morehouse
College and attended the liberal Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester,
Pennsylvania. He thrived in all his studies, and was valedictorian of his class
in 1951, and elected student body president. He also earned a fellowship for
graduate study. But Martin also rebelled against his father’s more conservative
influence by drinking beer and playing pool while at college. He became
involved with a white woman and went through a difficult time before he could
break off the affair.
During his last year in seminary, Martin Luther King Jr. came under the
influence of theologian Reinhold Niebbuhr, a classmate of his father's at
Morehouse College. Niebbuhr became a mentor to Martin, challenging his liberal
views of theology. Niebuhr was probably the single most important influence in
Martin's intellectual and spiritual development. After being accepted at
several colleges for his doctoral study including Yale and Edinburgh in
Scotland, King enrolled in Boston University.
During the work on this doctorate, Martin Luther King Jr. met Coretta Scott,
an aspiring singer and musician, at the New England Conservatory school in
Boston. They were married in June 1953 and had four children, Yolanda, Martin
Luther King III, Dexter Scott and Bernice. In 1954, while still working on his
dissertation, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church of
Montgomery, Alabama. He completed his Ph.D. and was award his degree in 1955.
King was only 25 years old.
On March 2, 1955, a 15-year-old girl refused to give up her seat to a white
man on a Montgomery city bus in violation of local law. Claudette Colvin
was arrested and taken to jail. At first, the local chapter of the NAACP felt
they had an excellent test case to challenge Montgomery's segregated bus
policy. But then it was revealed that she was pregnant and civil rights leaders
feared this would scandalize the deeply religious black community and make
Colvin (and, thus the group's efforts) less credible in the eyes of sympathetic
whites.
On December 1, 1955, they got another chance to make their case. That
evening, 42-year-old Rosa Parks
boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus to go home from an exhausting day at work. She
sat in the first row of the "colored" section in the middle of the
bus. As the bus traveled its route, all the seats it the white section filled
up, then several more white passengers boarded the bus. The bus driver noted
that there were several white men standing and demanded that Parks and several
other African Americans give up their seats. Three other African American
passengers reluctantly gave up their places, but Parks remained seated. The
driver asked her again to give up her seat and again she refused. Parks was
arrested and booked for violating the Montgomery City Code. At her trial a week
later, in a 30-minute hearing, Parks was found guilty and fined $10 and
assessed $4 court fee.
On the night that Rosa Parks was
arrested, E.D. Nixon, head of the local NAACP chapter met with Martin Luther
King Jr. and other local civil rights leaders to plan a citywide bus boycott.
King was elected to lead the boycott because he was young, well-trained with
solid family connections and had professional standing. But he was also new to
the community and had few enemies, so it was felt he would have strong
credibility with the black community.
In his first speech as the group's president, King declared, "We have
no alternative but to protest. For many years we have shown an amazing
patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked
the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that
patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and
justice."
Martin Luther King Jr.'s fresh and skillful rhetoric put a new energy into
the civil rights struggle in Alabama. The bus boycott would be 382 days of
walking to work, harassment, violence and intimidation for the Montgomery's
African-American community. Both King's and E.D. Nixon's homes were attacked.
But the African-American community also took legal action against the city
ordinance arguing that it was unconstitutional based on the Supreme Court's
"separate is never equal" decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
After being defeated in several lower court rulings and suffering large
financial losses, the city of Montgomery lifted the law mandating segregated
public transportation. King met with religious and civil rights leaders and
lectured all over the country on race-related issues.
In 1959, with the help of the American Friends Service Committee, and
inspired by Gandhi's success with non-violent activism, Martin Luther King
visited Gandhi's birthplace in India. The trip affected him in a deeply
profound way, increasing his commitment to America's civil rights struggle.
African-American civil rights activist Bayard Rustin,
who had studied Gandhi's teachings, became one of King's associates and
counseled him to dedicate himself to the principles of non-violence. Rustin
served as King's mentor and advisor throughout his early activism and was the
main organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. But Rustin was also a controversial
figure at the time, being a homosexual with alleged ties to the Communist
Party, USA. Though his counsel was invaluable to King, many of his other
supporters urged him to distance himself from Rustin.
In February 1960, a group of African-American students began what became
known as the "sit-in" movement in Greensboro, North Carolina. The
students would sit at racially segregated lunch counters in the city's stores.
When asked to leave or sit in the colored section, they just remained seated,
subjecting themselves to verbal and sometimes physical abuse. The movement
quickly gained traction in several other cities. In April 1960, the SCLC held a
conference at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina with local sit-in
leaders. Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged students to continue to use
nonviolent methods during their protests. Out of this meeting, the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee formed and for a time, worked closely with
the SCLC. By August of 1960, the sit-ins had been successful in ending
segregation at lunch counters in 27 southern cities.
By 1960, Martin Luther King Jr. was gaining national notoriety. He returned
to Atlanta to become co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church, but
also continued his civil rights efforts. On October 19, 1960, King and 75
students entered a local department store and requested lunch-counter service
but were denied. When they refused to leave the counter area, King and 36
others were arrested. Realizing the incident would hurt the city's reputation,
Atlanta's mayor negotiated a truce and charges were eventually dropped. But
soon after, King was imprisoned for violating his probation on a traffic
conviction. The news of his imprisonment entered the 1960 presidential
campaign, when candidate John F. Kennedy
made a phone call to Coretta Scott
King. Kennedy expressed his concern for King's harsh treatment for the
traffic ticket and political pressure was quickly set in motion. King was soon
released.
In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. organized a demonstration in
downtown Birmingham, Alabama. Entire families attended. City police turned dogs
and fire hoses on demonstrators. Martin Luther King was jailed along with large
numbers of his supporters, but the event drew nationwide attention.
Flush with victory, African-American civil rights leaders recognized the
need for a national organization to help coordinate their efforts. In January
1957, Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and 60 ministers and civil
rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to
harness the moral authority and organizing power of black churches. They would
help conduct non-violent protests to promote civil rights reform. King's
participation in the organization gave him a base of operation throughout the
South, as well as a national platform. The organization felt the best place to
start to give African Americans a voice was to enfranchise them in the voting
process. In February 1958, the SCLC sponsored more than 20 mass meetings in key
southern cities to register black voters in the South. However, King was
personally criticized by black and white clergy alike for taking risks and endangering
the children who attended the demonstration. From the jail in Birmingham, King
eloquently spelled out his theory of non-violence: "Nonviolent direct
action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a
community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the
issue."
By the end of the Birmingham campaign, Martin Luther King Jr. and his
supporters were making plans for a massive demonstration on the nation's
capital composed of multiple organizations, all asking for peaceful change. On
August 28, 1963, the historic March on Washington drew more than 200,000 people
in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial. It was here that King made his famous
"I Have a Dream" speech, emphasizing his belief that someday all men
could be brothers.
The rising tide of civil rights agitation produced a strong effect on public
opinion. Many people in cities not experiencing racial tension began to
question the nation's Jim Crow laws and the near century second class treatment
of African-American citizens. This resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 authorizing the federal government to enforce desegregation of
public accommodations and outlawing discrimination in publicly owned facilities.
This also led to Martin Luther King receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for 1964.
King's struggle continued throughout the 1960s. Often, it seemed as though
the pattern of progress was two steps forward and one step back. On March 7,
1965, a civil rights march, planned from Selma to Alabama's capital in
Montgomery, turned violent as police with nightsticks and tear gas met the
demonstrators as they tried to cross the Edmond Pettus Bridge. King was not in
the march, however the attack was televised showing horrifying images of
marchers being bloodied and severely injured. Seventeen demonstrators were
hospitalized leading to the naming the event "Bloody Sunday." A
second march was cancelled due to a restraining order to prevent the march from
taking place. A third march was planned and this time King made sure he was on
it. Not wanting to alienate southern judges by violating the restraining order,
a different tact was taken. On March 9, 1965, a procession of 2,500 marchers,
both black and white, set out once again to cross the Pettus Bridge and
confronted barricades and state troopers. Instead of forcing a confrontation,
King led his followers to kneel in prayer and they then turned back. The event
caused King the loss of support among some younger African-American leaders,
but it nonetheless aroused support for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of
1965.
From late 1965 through 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. expanded his Civil
Rights Movement into other larger American cities, including Chicago and Los
Angeles. But he met with increasing criticism and public challenges from young
black-power leaders. King's patient, non-violent approach and appeal to white
middle-class citizens alienated many black militants who considered his methods
too weak and too late.
In the eyes of the sharp-tongued, blue jean young urban black, King's manner
was irresponsibly passive and deemed non-effective. To address this criticism
King began making a link between discrimination and poverty. He expanded his
civil rights efforts to the Vietnam War. He felt that America's involvement in
Vietnam was politically untenable and the government's conduct of the war
discriminatory to the poor. He sought to broaden his base by forming a
multi-race coalition to address economic and unemployment problems of all
disadvantaged people.
By 1968, the years of demonstrations and confrontations were beginning to
wear on Martin Luther King Jr. He had grown tired of marches, going to jail,
and living under the constant threat of death. He was becoming discouraged at
the slow progress civil rights in America and the increasing criticism from
other African-American leaders. Plans were in the works for another march on
Washington to revive his movement and bring attention to a widening range of
issues. In the spring of 1968, a labor strike by Memphis sanitation workers
drew King to one last crusade. On April 3, in what proved to be an eerily
prophetic speech, he told supporters, "I've seen the promised land. I may not
get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will
get to the promised land." The next day, while standing on a balcony
outside his room at the Lorraine Motel, Martin Luther King Jr. was struck by a
sniper's bullet. The shooter, a malcontent drifter and former convict named James Earl Ray,
was eventually apprehended after a two-month, international manhunt. The
killing sparked riots and demonstrations in more than 100 cities across the
country. In 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to assassinating King and was sentenced to
99 years in prison. He died in prison on April 23, 1998.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s life had a seismic impact on race relations in the
United States. Years after his death, he is the most widely known
African-American leader of his era. His life and work have been honored with a
national holiday, schools and public buildings named after him, and a memorial
on Independence Mall in Washington, D.C. But his life remains controversial as
well. In the 1970s, FBI files, released under the Freedom of Information Act,
revealed that he was under government surveillance, and suggested his
involvement in adulterous relationships and communist influences. Over the years,
extensive archival studies have led to a more balanced and comprehensive
assessment of his life, portraying him as a complex figure: flawed, fallible
and limited in his control over the mass movements with which he was
associated, yet a visionary leader who was deeply committed to achieving social
justice through nonviolent means.
