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The Shichi-Go-San Passage Rites take place when five year old boys and three and seven year old girls visit a shrine to receive divine blessings and to report on their health. Other Folk Shinto Passage Rites are Coming of Age Festivals and Marriage Ceremonies. Coming of Age Festivals take place when youths reach the age of twenty. There is an official celebration at a public institution like a local government office after which many of the youths visit a shrine to receive the grace and divine blessings of the Kami. Marriages Ceremonies used to take place when the family reported a marriage to the ancestors in front of the household altar. Then the family introduced the newly wed couple to their community as new members. The family also invited relatives and neighbors to a banquet held at the household. Since 1868-1912, the marriage ceremony has taken place in a Shinto shrine or a Buddhist temple.
There are many other kinds
of Shinto Festivals such as those to wish someone prosperity and happiness; and
festivals to ward off misfortune or trouble. There are festivals those
influenced by Yin-Yang thought, Taoism, and Buddhism. There are also festivals
related to various occupations in industry, commerce, and agriculture.
There are Shinto seasonal festivals like the last day of the year when the Japanese practice the ancient custom of purification, Oharae, by cleaning the home and surrounding area, taking a bath to cleanse themselves, and eating Soba noodles as they wait for the arrival of the New Year. During the first three days of a year, city people visit a Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple; while, in rural areas either each house holds a ceremony to invite the deity of a year, or else the community does it on their behalf. Toso rice wine and a special meal are shared with the ancestral spirits, and people place special amulets on their house altar. An ancestral soul's day is also held in July or August that is an amalgam of a Buddhist festival based on Chinese Urabon sutra and the Folk Shinto faith where people visits the graves of ancestors who have been sent to the Pure Land.
During the Bon Festival
All the members of a clan or family get together to enjoy a meal especially
prepared for the occasion...Go
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