Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-31

0NCE year every Japanese household remenl-
bers it's dead in a kind of universal All
Saints Day and Memorial Dav both in one
The spirits of the departed, both bad and good,
supposed to return to the of their former
lives, and their successors make great preparations
for their reception. The graves decorated with
lanterns and flowers set upon them; the odor of
incense fills the air where the offerings of food
are made to the spirits.
The visitors at the Japanese seaside
resorts may have noticed lying about the beach at
certain of the year number of articles the
use of which they may have been at loss to under
stand-whte wands, branches of feathery bamboo
queer little objects made of vegetables Cucum-
bers and elephants with legs made of white wood
and tails of seaweed seem to represent some animal
if children had been trying to construct Noahs
Ark from the kitchen garden.
Before every house where there has been>a death
fire of hemp-stalks is lighted, which each
member of the family steps in order to ward off
diseases for the coming year. White wands
fixed in the sand in front of the fire for the spirits
to canes; there also two of the queer
little objects which strew the beach a few days
afterward. The cucumbers represent horses, and
the egg plants COWS upon which the spirits
will come riding home. The evening of July I3
the fires lighted, and priest is summoned to
say suitable prayers, inviting the spirits to enter
the house they once occupied. After a decent
interval the animals taken up and placed on
the family shrine with two long branches of BAN
boo, and the spirit is supposed to be comfortably
settled for it's little visit with mortals.
In order to entertain the shadowy guest offer
ngs of vermicel1i millet, haricot-beans salad and
pumpkin cut up into bits are laid upon the shrine
Instead of meat fish course, which the spirits
do not relish, whole squash is offered up These
offerings left in their places the shrine until
the sixteenth day of the month, when they are
thrown into the sea, and the spirits are supposed
to return to their places until the next yearly
festival.
The food offered to the spirits is supposed never
to be eaten by mortals, because the visitors are
supposed to have extracted all their essence. Some
enterprisng individuals in the cities, however are
said to go about to the different houses where
distance from the waters renders it difficult to get
rid of the offerings, and collecting all they carry
dispose of them at tea-houses, markets and other
places No one willingly eats the offerings to the
placed are sometimes saved, dried and eaten with
rice and believed to prevent cure summer
ailments.
For the Obon Festival the family 'god-she1f"
is arranged with figure of Buddha in the center,
before which censor is kept burning. On each
side of the figure the food is placed with rice fruit
pure water, vase of flowers, candles and tablets
of ancestors Banners of various colors are ar
ranged in front of all and represent the five saints
Green is the color of the first one and bears the
character for beauty; the red is charity deliver
and wisdom; white is purity; black means
hunger and fear; and the yellow is famine The