{"id":2249,"date":"2012-09-28T01:50:48","date_gmt":"2012-09-28T01:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/?p=2249"},"modified":"2012-09-28T01:50:48","modified_gmt":"2012-09-28T01:50:48","slug":"cemetery-fall-equinox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/cemetery-fall-equinox\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cemetery"},"content":{"rendered":"
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These are on the west side of a hill, so many face the hill.<\/p><\/div>\n

Unlike \u30ab\u30ca\u30c0 (Canada) and many western countries, the \u6625 (\u306f\u308b\/spring) equinox and \u79cb (\u3042\u304d\/fall) equinox are national holidays in \u65e5\u672c (\u306b\u3063\u307d\u3093\/Japan). Many people use this time to go to the \u5893\u5730 (\u307c\u3061\/cemetery) to pray for their deceased family members and relatives. While the \u590f (\u306a\u3064\/summer) Obon holiday is perhaps the most popular time to go to the \u5893\u5730 (\u307c\u3061), you will still see a fair amount of people around \uff19\u6708\uff12\uff12\u65e5 (\u304f\u304c\u3064\u3000\u306b\u3058\u3085\u3046\u306b\u3000\u306b\u3061 \/September 22nd) and around \uff13\u6708\uff12\uff10\u65e5 (\u3055\u3093\u304c\u3064\u3000\u306f\u3064\u304b\/March 20th).<\/p>\n

Japanese \u5893\u5730 (\u307c\u3061) are a lot different than the christian ones I’m used to in \u30ab\u30ca\u30c0. For example, each family has a site with a large \u5893 (\u306f\u304b\/grave or tomb) that is used for the whole family, instead of a \u5893 (\u306f\u304b\/grave) and \u5893\u77f3 (\u306f\u304b\u3044\u3057\/gravestone) for each person. The \u5893 (\u306f\u304b) and \u5893\u77f3 (\u306f\u304b\u3044\u3057) usually faces due \u6771 (\u3072\u304c\u3057\/east), to face the rising \u592a\u967d (\u305f\u3044\u3088\u3046\/sun). For that reason, \u5893\u5730 (\u307c\u3061) are not often on the \u897f (\u306b\u3057\/west) side of hills, but when they are the \u5893 (\u306f\u304b) could face into the hill! It can be quite surprising to see hundreds of \u5893 (\u306f\u304b) all facing the exact same direction.<\/p>\n

When someone passes away, their name is usually added to a secondary stone tablet which contains the names\/ages\/dates of all the other family members who died in the past. If a \u5893 has been used for a long time, there could easily be several generations of \u540d\u524d (\u306a\u307e\u3048\/names) listed at one \u5893.\u00a0Unlike christian \u5893, the Japanese do not bury the whole body. They will place any \u9aa8 (\u307b\u306d\/bones) that remained after \u706b\u846c (\u304b\u305d\u3046\/cremation) in a small chamber at the base of the main stone. Finally, \u82b1 (\u306f\u306a\/flowers) are placed on either side of the main stone, \u6c34 (\u307f\u305a\/water) is left as a gift to the deceased, and \u7dda\u9999 (\u305b\u3093\u3053\u3046\/incense) is burned in front whenever people visit and pray.<\/p>\n

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A part of a large cemetery in Kagoshima city<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Unlike \u30ab\u30ca\u30c0 (Canada) and many western countries, the \u6625 (\u306f\u308b\/spring) equinox and \u79cb (\u3042\u304d\/fall) equinox are national holidays in \u65e5\u672c (\u306b\u3063\u307d\u3093\/Japan). Many people use this time to go to the \u5893\u5730 (\u307c\u3061\/cemetery) to pray for their deceased family members and relatives. While the \u590f (\u306a\u3064\/summer) Obon holiday is perhaps the most popular time to go…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":2254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[90171,7356,90172,90173,2239,2241,90169],"class_list":["post-2249","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cemeteries","tag-cemetery","tag-grave","tag-grave-stone","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-japanese-culture"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t