Sapporo Snow Festival
Sapporo Snow Festival
The yearly Sapporo Snow Carnival is the most popular winter festival in Japan and attracts a lot of people worldwide. This festival is seized in early February and lasts about a week. More than 300 ice statues and snow sculptures are showed in three sites in Sapporo-city, Hokkaido: Odori Park, Satoland, and Susukino areas. At night those ice statues are lit up, and the views are unbelievable It is very cold in Sapporo in February, so you need to dress warm when going to see the celebration. You should wear thermal underwear and a sweater and then an overcoat like a ski jacket. Also, get a hat or ear-warmer and gloves. The pathways are icy, so you need to walk very carefully. When you are getting cold, it might be a good idea to stop at a ramen noodle shop. Sapporo is popular for tasty ramen noodles, and there are many ramen noodle shops around the city
Kyoto Gion Festival
The old capital of Japan, Kyoto is taken back in time during the Gion festival, by Yasaka shrine (gion was the old name of this shrine.) Gion carnival is one of the biggest celebrations in Japan. This Japanese celebration starts July 1st and lasts till July 31st. At this time, there are many street vendors with games and Japanese festival food. Also, many people who go to this festival wear yukata and geta, which are conventional Japanese outfits. It is known that the summer of Kyoto starts with the Gion Matsuri. It is a conventional summer event. Gion carnival was started in 869 A.D when a bad infection extends through Kyoto. In the first festival, young men carried numbers of wooden floats. It was a divine interference to stop the plague. The plague soon ended, and this event became a popular festival. In the Edo Era, the existing forms of the bedecked hovers are presented in the event.
- Tanabata
Tanabata
In a lot of regions in Japan, tanabata is distinguished on August 7th (which is near July 7th on the lunar calendar) instead of July 7th. If you are in Japan during these days, stop by a tanabata carnival near your place. Tanabata events are held all over Japan, but the events in Sendai-city, Miyagi Prefecture and Hiratsuka-city, Kanagawa Prefecture are mainly well-known. Huge Tanabata decorations fill the main streets in these cities and attract a lot of visitors every year. It’s fun to walk through the long streamers on the street. Sendai Tanabata is held around August 7 and Hiratsuka Tanabata is held around July 7th every year.
Nara Todaiji Temple Shunie Ceremony
The calibration of water and fire in Nara Todai-ji temple is called shuni-e ceremony, which is also identified as Omizutori. It’s said that spring comes to Nara, with the end of this celebration. Shuni-e ceremony is held from March 1st to 14th (it’s in February in the lunar calendar) yearly at Todaiji temple, Nara. Todaiji temple is famous for hosting a great Buddha statue. Shuni-e means the ceremony of February in Japanese and is the series of Buddhist rituals, in which priests pray to the eleven-headed goddess Kannon by confessing their sins and defilement. The ceremony is held at nigatsudo hall. Eleven priests, called rengyoshu, pray for nation’s prosperity and world peace by strengthening their piety through religious exercise. This calibration has been experienced yearly for more than 1200 years.
