Colors of Osaka - traditions, festivals, mentality and lifestyle

Numerous cultural traditions of local people are great and impressive. Local folks respect their ancestors and follow ancient customs and age old traditions. The city of Osaka offers its guests great entertaining and cultural program including various ethnic festivals and fests. The Bon Festival is one of the most in demand ethnic fests among foreign guests. Impressive ethnic event lasts for three days. Another popular name of the festival is the Day of remembrance of dead.

The festival is celebrated according to lunar calendar and after the Gregorian Calendar the dates of the festival fall on the middle of August. Local people believe that in this period the spirits of their ancestors come back home. To help them find a way home at nightfall doors of the houses are illuminated with bright lanterns. The festival is followed with different religious events. Buddhist temples hold readings of sacred books.

At nightfall a major part of entertaining events takes place in city parks. Tourists may witness there bright dance shows. The festival ends with a symbolic and impressive event named Toro Nagashi which is a floating lanterns performance. These lanterns are believed to show the spirits the way back to the world of dead. Copyright www.orangesmile.com

Another interesting event is held in June. A bright fest in the Shitennoji temple is as well followed with impressive folk music performances. Tourists visiting Osaka in July will have a chance to witness an amazing holiday named Tenjin Matsuri. In the daytime central streets of the city are filled with bright marches in which anybody can take part. In the evening people and the festival action relocate to the river bank to enjoy a boat parade.

The boats are painted in bright colors, decorated with paper garlands and traditional lanterns. Local people sailing the boats sing ethnic songs accompanied with bass drum. Each ethnic fest is a fusion of unique traditions and customs. Local people follow many beliefs, legends and symbolic traditions which they are eager to share with foreign guests. It should be noted that local folks are rather cordial and welcoming towards tourists interested in local culture and traditions.

An interesting festival for every traveler is Toka Ebisu. It takes place at the very beginning of January, opening the festive calendar of Japan. The event is dedicated to Ebisu - this is the name of the Japanese god of fishermen and luck. To witness the carnival means to bring good luck for the next year, and that's why it is so important for citizens. During the festival, you can not only watch colorful fancy-dress parades, but also buy “Fukusasa” (branches of young bamboo with amulets fixed on its leaves), “Ema” (small wooden plaques), and “Maneki-neko” (the world-famous lucky cats of Japan), as well as Daruma dolls, which have long become a symbol of the Land of the Rising Sun. The festival is held in the central streets of Osaka.

On July 30, locals traditionally celebrate the Sumiyoshi Matsuri Festival. All the events within its framework are held in the above-mentioned temple (Sumiyoshi Taisha). It is the last carnival of the summer season. The festival itself is a fancy-dress parade with street musicians and mikoshi (traditional palanquins in which “kami” spirits are believed to live). The weight of some mikoshi can even reach 1800 kilograms, so cars are essential for their transportation. It is worth noting that this is one of the most widely celebrated holidays in all of Japan.

Sinno-sai Matsuri is another Japanese religious holiday, and the god of healing takes up the baton this time. The holiday owes its appearance to the epidemic of cholera that broke out in 1822. As the legend says, the god Sinno helped to cope with the disease by presenting a medicine in a tiger-shaped Paper Mache box to a local temple. It was made of tiger bones. Today, locals pay tribute to this event with their colorful costumed processions with mikoshi. Parade participants throw toy tigers traditionally made from the same material into the crowd. The holiday falls on November 22.

Besides, Osaka offers music festivals, and the most popular one is the Summer Sonic Festival taking place in early August. It is dedicated to rock and its all possible subgenres, which are very popular in Japan. The permanent venue for the festival is the Maishima Sports Island Center. Among its headliners are always eminent bands and performances. Green Day, Marylin Manson, Slipknot, Guns N’Roses, Sum 41, Deep Purple, Bullet for my Valentine have been among them already. Besides foreign performers, you can listen to many Japanese bands at the musical event. The festival is held simultaneously in the Japanese city of Chiba. Thus, after giving a concert in one city, performers go to another one to please the audience once again.

An interesting gourmet festival held in late October is the Dessert Sweets & Drink Festival. The venue is the Osaka International Exhibition Center or simply INTEX. At this gastronomic event, tourists have a unique opportunity to enjoy wonderful delicacies and drinks of local cuisine. Apart from tastings, visitors will enjoy dessert cooking workshops, the best chef competitions, as well as seminars allowing everyone to learn a lot of interesting information about the production of certain products. Every year, the festival is visited by about thirty-five thousand gourmets from all over the world.