Obon Festival enlightenment

On one evening each year, the Japanese Garden at the Albuquerque Biopark is awakened and adorned with paper lanterns and gentle lighting throughout the winding walkways.

The soft summer breeze carries the sound of traditional Japanese instruments and cuisine, and you’re surrounded by the festive, yet tranquil energy of the annual Obon Festival.

Obon is an annual Buddhist event that commemorates one’s ancestors. The traditional belief is that each year during Obon, the ancestors’ spirits return to this world to visit their relatives. Traditionally, lanterns are hung in front of houses to guide their spirits.

The culmination of the event at the Biopark was releasing a toro nagashi, or floating lantern, into the pond at dusk to celebrate loved ones. My cousin, Tamie, treated my husband and I to this special event the weekend before last, and there were so many beautiful takeaways from being enveloped in the rich culture of Japan.

Something I found particularly intriguing was the presentation of a traditional Japanese tea ceremony demonstrating a ceremonial way of preparing and drinking green tea led by Chado New Mexico. It was fascinating to learn about all the details and etiquette that goes into these ceremonies, which can last up to four hours. What I found most compelling was while tea is obviously a crucial component, the intent of these ceremonies extend far beyond just tea.

According to Chado New Mexico’s website, “The Way of Tea, or Chado, is a way to calm the mind, soothe the spirit, and share a special time away from the concerns of everyday life. Served with a respectful heart and received with gratitude, a bowl of tea satisfies physical and spiritual thirst. While deeply rooted in Japanese culture and Zen philosophy, its spirit is universal, and offers a tranquil approach to life that is best experienced directly, by quietly drinking a bowl of tea.”

Throughout the demonstration, the host shared how the ceremony is meant to indulge all the senses and promote mindfulness to appreciate the current moment. Every detail plays a specific role, from the type of flower on display for your guest to admire to coincide with the season, to how the hot water is poured to create a pleasant sound for guests to appreciate, to placing the tea cup with the nicest side facing your guest when serving it to them so they can appreciate the embellishments.

I also admire how mutual respect between the host and guests was emphasized and the overarching importance of gratitude toward not only each other, but to small details that we may often overlook that make the present moment so nice.

As someone who feels like a lot of my thoughts are either occupied with the things of past or uncertainties of the future, I found the host’s comments and the lessons of Zen philosophy quite timely and I hope to integrate them more into my daily life.

I feel many of us, myself included, live in a fast-paced, ever-changing world and the struggle is definitely real sometimes in keeping up with the rat race and the accompanying burnout and stress, so finding ways to practice gratitude and mindfulness whenever we can and in whatever ways we can, I think, can benefit everyone.

While we can’t enjoy a tranquil tea ceremony everyday, there are still plenty of opportunities to appreciate the current moment and the nice part is it can take many different forms. For example, on the weekends when able, my husband and I like to start off the day with a nice cup of coffee outside on our porch, just enjoying the environment around us, like the sounds of the birds and warmth of the sun while we sip. Then, we usually like to follow it up with a plant walk, where we visit each planter in our yard to admire the flowers and plants and see how each is doing.

The tea ceremony host also spoke about Kintsugi, which is the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics by melding the pieces back together with gold in the cracks. It’s based on the idea of healing and that in embracing flaws and imperfections, you can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art. I love this concept because we are all imperfect and have all been broken before, but being broken gives us the opportunity to heal and be wiser and more emphatic and resilient because of it.

Our night at the Obon festival concluded with us releasing our floating lanterns with some new perspective and gratitude in mind, represented by an idyllic pond of floating lights as a testament to our loved ones who’ve passed, and as a reminder to protect and nurture the light within ourselves.