(traditional Japanese music)
-Obon Odori is a Japanese festival of honoring one's ancestors.
It's believed that ancestors come back and visit.
And during this time we put up lanterns to tell us,
you know, here we are, this is your home.
(crowd chatter)
A major part of the
Obon Festival, or Bon Odori Festival
is dancing... dancing for joy for our ancestors.
(traditional Japanese music and taiko drum)
Before dancing starts, we always have a service.
And so a typical sort of Jodo
Shinshu Buddhist service, which is the sect of Buddhism
that this temple belongs to, is sutra chanting,
(chanting)
-Okay, please line up for
Mi Kokoro Ondo.
(traditional Japanese music)
-In the true sort of essence of Bon Odori,
you don't really need to know the dance.
You should just dance!
(traditional Japanese music and singing)
The music that you hear,
and when we dance in Bon Odori,
it's kind of a split between sort of religious music,
Japanese music,
and then like some fun dances that are thrown in.
All of the music has been passed down to us
and we have dances that were passed down as well.
(taiko drumming)
Within the Buddhist churches of America,
I think
we're one of the oldest consecutively running Obons.
(traditional Japanese music & taiko drumming)
It’s really exciting time
and one of my favorite times of the year.
(applause)