Posted by Jackie Hewett on Wed 2nd May 2007 at 02:26 AM, Filed in Far East, May
To westerners Japanese culture can seem quite alien and incomprehensible, possibly never more so than when they embark, as they frequently do, on a festival. This nation of usually conformist, and by UK standards shy, people seem to need the slimmest pretext to get their kit off and run around half naked beating drums.
If you are interested in visiting Japan there are some good reasons to time your visit for April / May.
One being Sanja Maturi in May, which is the one of the largest Matsuri parades in Japan. During a Matsuri, Shinto followers bear shrines, called mikoshi, on their shoulders using two poles. Frequently the mikoshi look like lavishly decorated miniature buildings, sometimes complete with verandas, pillars and railings. They can require dozens of people to carry each one. The mikoshi are taken from a permanent shrine and carried on a ‘tour’ around the neighbourhood, sometimes via a dip in a pool, lake or river, before being returned to the originating shrine. The mikoshi contain kami (or deities) and the procession is meant to bring luck and good fortune. It is believed that the rougher the journey the kami experiences the better the fortune is bestowed, so bearers often sway the heavy mikoshi precariously from side to side which can be a dangerous occupation for bearer and spectator.
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Where but in the USA would you find the World Barbecue Cooking Contest! The country that does everything in a big way certainly knows how to eat.
This annual event takes place in Memphis, and is part of the Memphis in May festival. This year’s grand cook off takes place 17th May to 19th May, and is always the crowning glory of the festival (it’s dubbed the world championship though it’s not the only one). It takes place on the banks of the Mississippi river in the Tom Lee Park, it’s not only corporate sponsored professionals who take part in this smoky combat of ‘culinary delights’, ordinary folk take part with their back garden barbecues.
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