is a Japanese

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 ceremony in which participants float paper lanterns

Traditional lighting equipment of Japan

The traditional lighting equipment of Japan includes the andon , the bonbori , the chōchin , and the tōrō .-Andon:...

 (chōchin) down a river; tōrō

Tōrō

A "灯篭" is just a simplified form of "灯籠". is a Japanese lantern made of stone, wood, or metal traditional in the Far East. In China extant specimen are very rare, and in Korea too they are not as common as in Japan. In Japan, tōrō were originally used only in Buddhist temples, where they lined and...

 is traditionally another word for lantern, while nagashi means "cruise, flow". This is primarily done on the last evening of the Bon Festival

Bon Festival

or just is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist-Confucian custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves, and when the spirits of ancestors are supposed...

 festival based on the belief that this guides the spirit

Spirit

The English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...

s of the departed back to the other world.

The ceremony may be done on some other days of the year for other reasons such as to commemorate those lost in the bombing of Hiroshima

Hiroshima

is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...

 and those who died on Japan Airlines Flight 123

Japan Airlines Flight 123

Japan Airlines Flight 123 was a Japan Airlines domestic flight from Tokyo International Airport to Osaka International Airport on August 12, 1985. The Boeing 747-146SR that made this route, registered , suffered mechanical failures 12 minutes into the flight and 32 minutes later crashed into two...

; or in other areas of the world, such as Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, to commemorate the end of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The Bon Festival takes place on the thirteenth to sixteenth of August or July, depending on the calendar you go by. The white lanterns are for those who have died in the past year. Traditional Japanese beliefs state that humans come from water, so the lanterns represent their bodies returning to water (traditionally the sea in this case).

See also

• Spirit Boat Procession
  Spirit Boat Procession
  The is an event celebrated in various places in Nagasaki prefecture, Japan. It is part of the Bon Festival. During the event, the souls of the deceased are mourned and sent off.- Description :...
  
  
• Diwali
  Diwali
  Diwali or DeepavaliThe name of the festival in various regional languages include:, , , , , , , , , , , , , popularly known as the "festival of lights," is a festival celebrated between mid-October and mid-December for different reasons...
  
    Indian light festival
• Loi Krathong Thai lantern festival

External links

• Lantern Floating Hawaii Official site of Hawaii's largest Tourou Nagashi ceremony, held at Magic Island in Honolulu. Presented by Shinnyo-en Hawaii and the Na Lei Aloha Foundation.
• Tourou Nagashi Video A videoblog entry from the 2006 Tourou Nagashi ceremony in Honolulu.
• Tourou Nagashi Photos
• http://www.progressiveportal.org/lanterns Web site of the San Francisco Bay Area Peace Lantern Ceremony, held annually since 2002
• http://www.hiroshimatohope.org Web site of 'From Hiroshima to Hope', in Seattle, the largest commemoration of the bombing of Hiroshima outside of Japan.