Hana Matsuri : the Flower festival day

Every year, on April 8, Japanese people celebrate the birth of Shakyamuni Buddha, traditionally born on the 8th day of the 4th month of the Chinese calendar, but transposed on April 8th of the Gregorian calendar.

This birth is celebrated all over Japan during the Hana Matsuri (literally flower celebration), and is an opportunity for Japanese people to wear traditional clothes, as for most official ceremonies. In general, women wear colorful kimono and umbrella, and little girls sing Buddhist songs on their way to the temple.

Usually, during this day, people go to the temples and gather in front of tanjobutsu, a small statuette of Buddha as a child, and pour over it amacha (sweet tea made from leaves, water and hydrangea flowers), or amakaze (an alcohol made from fermented rice).

A symbolic and not to be missed event, the Hana Matsuri is very important to Japanese people, whose temples can receive up to several thousands of visits during the day, and which also gives them the opportunity to pray to keep demons away and get good crops.