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In Japan, There is an event/festival so called Bon Festival. In this event, Japanese people will pay respect to their ancestors who have passed away. The ways of holding this obon festival in each regions are different. If you visit Japan during Bon Festival, you can see the eggplant and cucumber at the corner of the street.

[Bon Festival’s manners] There are many ways to celebrate Bon Festival. The obvious way is lighting fire for welcoming the returns of ancesstors' spirits and cutting both cucumbers and eggplants in a horse liked shape. According to the belief, the lightened fire is comparable to compass which guide those spirits, while those horse shaped cucumber and eggplant were considered as the vehicle for spirits riding to come back.

[Obon Period] Bon Festival is held 4 days, which has started from mid August every year (usually 13- 16th Aug). Bon festival is widely held the most during this period in various places. However, in some area, this event is held according to lunar calender, which will start from mid July. In this case, it will be held variously depending on each area. Normally, most areas will conduct Obon in the middle of the month, in other words, on 15th full moon day. They say that full moon light will help to guide those spirits back.

[Floating the lattern] Speaking of representative ritual of Obon is definitely floating the lattern in the river. It has believed that floating the lattern in the river will soothe the spirits. In the past, Obon is held for rememberance of atomic bomb victims. Though Bon festival has rose from sad background, night lumination of lantern floating on the river is worth for appreciating.