{"id":492,"date":"2013-08-10T11:05:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-10T11:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/08\/buddhist-festival-of-souls-celebrating-ancestors.html"},"modified":"2014-07-28T15:29:53","modified_gmt":"2014-07-28T20:29:53","slug":"buddhist-festival-of-souls-celebrating-ancestors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/08\/buddhist-festival-of-souls-celebrating-ancestors.html","title":{"rendered":"Buddhist Festival of Souls: Celebrating Ancestors"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><div style=\"text-align: center;\"><object width=\"512\" height=\"328\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\" bgcolor=\"#000000\"><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"video=http:\/\/video.pbs.org\/videoPlayerInfo\/2254801361&amp;player=viral&amp;end=0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/dgjigvacl6ipj.cloudfront.net\/media\/swf\/PBSPlayer.swf\"><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\"><embed width=\"512\" height=\"328\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"http:\/\/dgjigvacl6ipj.cloudfront.net\/media\/swf\/PBSPlayer.swf\" flashvars=\"video=http:\/\/video.pbs.org\/videoPlayerInfo\/2254801361&amp;player=viral&amp;end=0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" wmode=\"transparent\" bgcolor=\"#000000\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">Ancestor worship. \u00a0Both the Japanese and the Chinese venerate their ancestors and the tradition dates back to at least the Zhou dynasty. \u00a0Here\u2019s a modern holiday that celebrates ancestors.The <a href='https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/library\/buddhism' target='_blank'>Buddhist<\/a> Festival of Souls, called the \u00a0Bon or Obon festival, occurs in Japan in July and in China in August. The Japanese believe that the souls of their ancestors return to their homes on earth. It\u2019s their job to guide them and help them find peace. The Japanese usually hang lanterns in front of their houses to guide the spirits. The festival is also celebrated in Buddhist temples in America. Here are stories about some of the celebrations in some cities:\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/thomas-shomaker\/japan-obon-festival-video_b_2313144.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Good background story<\/a>\u00a0about the festival from the Huffington Post<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Here\u2019s an article from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/article\/buddhist-festival-of-souls-recognized-next-week\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Examiner about the festival in Atlanta<\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nj.com\/cumberland\/index.ssf\/2013\/07\/traditional_japanese_folk_dancing_taiko_drumming_to_be_featured_at_annual_obon_festival.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The New Jersey Messenger<\/a> has a story about celebrations in Seabrook.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nj.com\/cumberland\/index.ssf\/2013\/07\/traditional_japanese_folk_dancing_taiko_drumming_to_be_featured_at_annual_obon_festival.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Salinas Herald has another story<\/a> about the festival in their city.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/photos.mercurynews.com\/2013\/07\/13\/photos-the-annual-obon-festival-in-san-joses-japantown\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Nice photos of the festival <\/a>in San Jose\u2019s Japantown from The Mercury News<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ancestor worship. \u00a0Both the Japanese and the Chinese venerate their ancestors and the tradition dates back to at least the Zhou dynasty. \u00a0Here\u2019s a modern holiday that celebrates ancestors.The Buddhist Festival of Souls, called the \u00a0Bon or Obon festival, occurs in Japan in July and in China in August. The Japanese believe that the souls [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1838,"featured_media":4619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Buddhist Festival of Souls: Celebrating Ancestors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ancestor worship. \u00a0Both the Japanese and the Chinese venerate their ancestors and the tradition dates back to at least the Zhou dynasty. \u00a0Here&#039;s a modern\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/08\/buddhist-festival-of-souls-celebrating-ancestors.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Buddhist Festival of Souls: Celebrating Ancestors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ancestor worship. \u00a0Both the Japanese and the Chinese venerate their ancestors and the tradition dates back to at least the Zhou dynasty. \u00a0Here&#039;s a modern\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/08\/buddhist-festival-of-souls-celebrating-ancestors.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World Religions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-08-10T11:05:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-28T20:29:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/433\/2013\/08\/Lady_Gaga_Burqa-11.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"240\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"George G. 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