Over the weekend volunteers stood outside the Spokane Buddhist Temple on Perry Street to invite guests to experience Japanese Buddhism, as the congregation celebrated the Obon Festival. The temple held the Obon Festival, a 500-year-old Japanese Buddhist tradition which celebrates past ancestors, for the second straight year after many previous years of hiatus.
For the event, a yoga studio next to the temple was cleared and turned into a gallery for people to display cultural exhibits such as bonsai, paintings and flower art. The lower level of the Spokane Buddhist Temple was set up for people to sell various goods related to Japanese Buddhist culture, including traditional meals cooked by volunteers. Frieda Morgenstern, a proud member of the temple, said the money earned from the Obon Festival will go toward restoring the temple.
“The landscape was sort of originally done oriental, but it has just gone totally wild,” she said. “Now we are trying to restore the landscape to having a traditional Japanese flavor.”
Both evenings of the event concluded with the festival’s two most popular events, a Taiko drum performance and the Bon Odori Dancing. The Taiko drum performance was a percussion ensemble that performed traditional Japanese music out in the main field, followed by interactive Bon Odori Dancing. Two guides led the dance atop a center stage as children and adults danced traditional choreography to close out the celebration.
The festival was a huge success and all signs point to the temple celebrating again next year. The Spokane Buddhist Temple meets for services every Sunday at 10:30 am and visitors are welcome.
For information visit the temple website.
