Well-known as a long-standing culture and unique, Japan has many festivals held throughout the year. Let’s take a look at the great festivals in the last months of 2019.
October
Takayama Matsuri of Hachimangu Shrine: October 9-10, 2019
Held at the Hachimangu Shrine, the Takayama Festival is one of the rare festivals held twice a year in the fall and spring. The festival will feature a colorful procession parading around town.
Sports Day: October 14, 2019
This national holiday is applied from October 1966 to commemorate the event of Japan has been an Olympic land since the Summer Games of 1964, which were the first to be staged in Asia. The national Sport day was supposed to encourage people to do more exercise to improve physical and mental health.
Kenka Matsuri – Fighting Festival: October 14-15, 2019
The festival is held at Matsubara temple in Himeji prefecture, Hyogo. The reason for the festival is called “Fighting” because during the festival, the participants will take the palanquin and bump into each other. They believe that the stronger the bumps of the palanquin, the more satisfied the gods are.
Autumn Festival of Toshogu Shrine, Nikko: October 16 – 17, 2019
The festival is extremely large at the Toshogu Shrine in Nikko in October, including the Shinto cult and shooting arrows from horseback. Participants recreate Tokugawa’s procession and burial. Especially, with more than 1,200 people present at the temple, this scene will really make you believe that you have returned to the Edo.
Fire Festival of Yuki Temple, Kurama, Kyoto: October 22, 2019
The festival takes place at Yuki Shrine in central Kyoto from around 6pm with long lines of torches lit along the entrance to the temple. The festival aims to restore a torch procession from the Heian period in the 970s to welcome gods from the temple to protect the neighboring villages.
November
Okunchi Festival of Karatsu Shrine, Saga: November 2-4, 2019
The row of large boats with various shapes such as sea bream, dragons, and a number of other meticulously painted creatures, moreover, these large, large boats are marched around by healthy men. the streets on the street with screams.
Daimyo Gyoreysu Festival in Hakone: November 3, 2019
This is a famous festival that emulates the most accurate and detailed historical costumes, including samurai warriors, geisha and Japanese princesses. The most impressive is the parade with the traditional dancers called Geigi, the festival will be extremely busy with music and dance.
December
On Matsuri of Kasuga temple, Nara: December 15-18, 2019
Hamada, Nara city still has an old festival, called On – Matsuri. Performers will wear a mask, symbolizing that god to perform rituals of worshiping and giving fortune to the people. During this festival, they perform a lot of dances depicting the spiritual world quite vividly, each dance contains the story in it.
Okera Mairi – Celestial Fire Festival: New Year’s Eve December 31, 2019 until January 1, 2020
“Okera” is a perennial plant whose roots are used as a digestive medicine in traditional medicine. Okera is a medicinal herb, believed to burn Okera to eliminate the evil energies of the past year, and bestow blessings and longevity for the new year. This plant is also used as a cultural feature that Japanese people think can ward off demons and bad luck by putting “Okera” strings into the fire. Held at the Shrine of Yasaka, Tokyo from 7 p.m on New Year’s Eve to 5am on January 1, 2020, Japanese people flock to kimono to celebrate New Year’s Day.