Bon Odori

Last weekend, we went to Bon Odori festival at Esplanade after our dinner. Many people might know about Bon Odori, but do you know the real meaning behind the festival?

This is the story of Bon Odori:

Bon Odori originates from the story of Mokuren, a disciple of Shakyamuni, who saw a vision of his deceased mother in the Realm of Hungry Ghosts where she was indulging in her own selfishness. Greatly disturbed, he went to the Buddha and asked how he could release his mother from this realm. Buddha answered, "On July 15, provide a big feast for the past seven generations of dead." The disciple did this and, thus, saw his mother's release. He also began to see the true nature of her past unselfishness and the many sacrifices that she had made for him. The disciple, happy because of his mother's release and grateful for his mother's kindness, danced with joy. From this dance of joy comes Bon Odori or "Bon Dance", a time in which ancestors and their sacrifices are remembered and appreciated.

Anyway back to topic. The event on that day started at 6.30pm, but due to rain, we only step into the venue at around 8.30pm. At that time, the rain had stopped, but the field was still abit wet and we had to be very cautious when wakling around. The first thing that attract us was the center stage. It was well decorated with lightings, with a group of dancers performing Japansese traditional dance.

Then, we walked around and visit the stalls and booths there. The stalls there are minly food stalls, and surprisingly, we saw Canon and Maxis booth too. Hmm... Perhaps there are some potential customers too? Hehe... Then, we came to this booth, in which the gold fish catching activity was held.

At the time when we reached the booth, the gold fish already almost finished being caught, and left this kiddo above catching the remaining few gold fish. After 5 minutes.....

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Still didn't manage to catch all the remaining gold fish. And finally the person in charge beh tong already, and he helped the kiddo to catch all the remaining fish. Keke...

Not long later, an announcement was made that the fireworks show will start earlier than scheduled due to the weather. We waited for some time, and finally the fireworks began! Whee.......

The firework lasted for around 10 minutes, and after the fireworks ended, we leave the venue, went to the mamak stall and have our supper, hehe....