The end of suffering comes with the end of desire. People should strive for wisdom and morality through meditation. Those who followed this path would clear their minds of evil, cruelty, and ill will. This would free them from reincarnation. April 8th is the anniversary of Buddha's birth.
Children dress up in kimonos, march through the streets to the shrine and sing Buddhist chants.
Men, women and children all wear kimonos. The women and girls wear bright colored kimonos with a feminine pattern, carry colorful parasols, wear thong-like shoes with white mitten looking socks, paint their faces white, their lips bright red and either wear a headdress with flowers on it or wind their hair up with a fancy comb. The young men and boys wear a darker colored kimono with a more masculine pattern, and some wear a white head band in their hair, the older men wear straw hats that are used while working in the rice fields. The streets are decorated with white lanterns that have black and red writing on them, and streamers made to look like cherry-blossoms. There is a parade in the streets which has floats that are sometimes carried by several men, other floats are on large, wooden, golden wheels that are pulled instead of carried.