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Arts & Entertainment

Japanese Society Celebrates Bon Odori Festival

The traditional dancing, drumming, and singing delighted hundreds.

The Taiko Drumming of Sandra Shen's O-Tatsu Taiko, Japanese folk dancing, and decorating bamboo stalks were part of the Bon Odori Festival Sunday in Westport's Jesup Green.

Held annually all over Japan since 657 and in Fairfield County by the Japanese Society of Fairfield County since 1993, Bon Odori is Japan's main summer festival and is held to memorialize family ancestors.

The Japanese summer festival lasts  for three days in August.  It is said that souls of the dead return to their ancestral homes for a reunion with their family, and it's customary to return to one's hometown to see parents, grandparents, relatives and old friends.

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Marilyn Moore, the Master of Ceremonies and a Director of the Society, said, "The bamboo tree is a little like our own Christmas tree.  You make a little card with a secret wish and decorate the tree with it.  They usually take a small branch with the wish with them when they leave.  Bamboo has a lot of meaning.  It grows slowly, it bends with the wind, and it has long life."

Women wore the traditional summer, and less formal "yukata" kimono made of cotton.

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Visit the site at Japanese Society of Fairfield County for more information.

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