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| Hounen Matsuri, the Japanese Harvest Festival. |
Hounen Matsuri (Japanese for Harvest Festival) is
a fertility festival celebrated every year on March
15 in Japan. The most well-known of these festivals
takes place in the town of Komaki, just north of
Nagoya City. Honen means rich harvest in Japanese,
while a matsuri is a festival or holiday. The Honen
festival and ceremony celebrate the blessings of
a bountiful harvest and all manner of prosperity
and fertility.
The festival starts with celebration and preparation
at 10 a.m. at Tagata Jinja, where all sorts of foods
and souvenirs (mostly phallus-shaped or related)
are sold. Sake is also passed out freely from large
wooden barrels. At about 2pm everyone gathers at
Shinmei Sha for the start of the procession. Shinto
priests say prayers and make blessings on the participants
and mikoshi which are to be carried along the parade
route, as well as the large wooden phallus... |
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