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SALT LAKE CITY — Members of the Salt Lake Buddhist Temple who had died in the past year were remembered on Saturday as people ate, danced and celebrated at the temple’s annual Obon Festival.
Obon is a festival of remembrance for the members of the Buddhist temple, located at 211 W. 100 South, said minister’s assistant James Aoki.
“It’s probably one of our most religious days of the year,” he said. “It’s really a memorial, a perpetual memorial service for a number of our temple members.”
Some of the members traveled around Utah visiting cemeteries where their loved ones are buried. Others attended the Obon service the Sunday after the festival to worship and pay tribute.
During the festival, people ate traditional Japanese food including sushi, danced to Japanese folk songs and enjoyed taiko drumming. Saturday evening, several hundred people formed circles around a stage and performed choreographed dances in unison while a DJ curated folk tunes.
Most of the dancers were dressed in traditional attire, such as kimonos. Paper lanterns — some created as Obon memorials of deceased loved ones — decorated the stage area.
Prior to Saturday's festival, people who wanted to learn the dances were invited to come to the gym at the temple where they were taught some of the choreography.
Obon also functions as a homecoming event of sorts for people who live elsewhere and have family members or friends in Utah, said Minister’s Assistant Dave Black. College students who have moved away from home for school often return for Obon, as well.
“To see them come back and visit, it’s always good,” Black said.
Decades ago, in the earlier years of the Obon Festival in Salt Lake, many people came to the festival just to get sushi, Black said. The event was the only place you could get it at the time, he said.
However, now, it’s a place for families to reconvene, for temple members to remember those who came before them and for people to come and have a good time, Black said.
The Salt Lake Buddhist Temple is officiated by Rev. Jerry Hirano, who splits his time between three other Buddhist temples in Ogden, Honeyville and Ontario, Oregon. Because Rev. Hirano travels often, minister's assistants fill in to officiate services when he is not there, Aoki said.
Aoki and his son Charles are minister’s assistants at the Ogden Buddhist Church, which will hold its Obon Festival this coming Saturday, July 21.
About 150 people are members of the Salt Lake Buddhist Temple’s congregation, or Sangha, Black said. The temple is part of the Jodo Shinshu Honganji Ha sect of Buddhism, which is headquartered in Kyoto, Japan.
The Salt Lake Buddhist Temple has been in existence since 1912 and moved to its present, larger building in 1964, Black said.
Typical Sunday worship services include burning of incense, sutra chanting and gassho, a type of gesture in which people put their palms together and become closer with Buddha, according to the Salt Lake Buddhist Temple website. Services also typically include reciting the nembutsu, a phrase that congregants repeat as an expression of appreciation for Buddha.
The Obon Festival is an event where everyone is welcome, and temple members work hard to make sure everyone feels comfortable, Black said.
“People can come here and feel at home, and we hope they feel at ease and enjoy it, and they can learn a little bit about Buddhism and see what they think about it," he said. "But it’s not something where they need to come back and get involved or anything like that. It’s just fun to have them come and see what it’s all about.”
