Japan History and Culture

Omikuji (御御籤,おみくじ)
The omikuji, literally mean “sacred lottery or crowned lottery” are random fortunes written on strips of paper from a container or box (Nowadays, these are often coin-slot machines or red vending machines,自動販売機) found at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples all over Japan

Fortunes were originally lots written by hand one by one from container or box, but they can now be purchased from a red vending machine. The omikuji  falls out of a small hole, scrolled up, when the piece of paper is unfolded, paper reveals the fortune written on strips of paper ,one’s fortune is listed as one of several categories: Great blessing (daikichi,大吉) , very lucky (chūkichi,中吉), lucky or Blessing( kichi,吉), somewhat lucky or Small blessing (shōkichi,小吉), barely lucky (suekichi,末吉) , Half-blessing (半吉), Near-small-blessing (末小吉), Curse (凶), Small curse (小凶), Half-curse (半凶), Near-curse (末凶), Great curse (大凶).The fortune may also include predictions different subjects about love, lost articles, study, family,money, travel, childbirth, and other matters, in other words, predictions for all needs.

Another one, you usually have to shake a box waiting for a numbered wooden stick (there’s a number written) to come down from a little hole. You have to take a piece of paper from the bow with the same number. After reading it, if the fortune tells is bad luck you should to make the paper is folded into a stripe tied around the branch of a tree, or pillars or in a special place where the shrine indicates, so the predicted bad luck won’t follow you. But if the fortune brings a message of good luck you can take it with you or put it on your wallet.

The Japanese often go to consult the omikuji before a significant event (voyage, marriage, etc) and in particular the New Year’s Day.

Japanese Floating of Paper Lanterns (Toro nagashi)

Toro nagashi or “lantern offerings on the water, “Toro” means lantern, whilst “Nagashi” means to stream. Small paper lanterns containing light candles on a wooden or bamboo base are set adrift on calm water. Usually a message is written on the outside of the paper lantern. The purpose of this event is to send off ancestor’s spirits.

Paper lanterns are used often in the folk practices and holidays of the orient, especially in Japan. They can very in form from a simple square or bell shape to elaborate figural shapes representing animals, people or mythological creatures.

This is primarily done on the last evening of the Buddhist festival of Obon, which is celebrated throughout Asia, paper lanterns are placed by the graves of deceased relatives: a red one for a relative that passed away during previous years and a white one for the recently deceased, a way to supposedly guide the spirits of the departed back to the other world. Recently, travellers from foreign countries come from far and wide to see this spectacle; can feel the quiet and beautiful atmosphere.

The lantern festival the other evening was a three hour affair, with performances of Japanese drummers, Chinese dance, a gospel group, and a lone Scottish bagpiper who played while the lanterns were placed in the pond at sunset