Photo/Illutration A thermographic camera is installed at JR Okayama Station on Aug. 8 for people arriving or leaving on Shinkansen bullet trains during the midsummer Bon holidays. (The Asahi Shimbun)

Many people must have had a difficult time deciding whether to make their annual trip to their hometown for the Bon holidays this year because of the COVID-19 crisis.

I was no exception. My elderly parents effectively made the decision for me when they said: “I don’t want you to bring us this infectious disease.”

This is a first in my history of observing this midsummer custom.

Let’s look at how and when the Bon tradition, popularly called O-bon, started.

According to Seishi Gamaike, 69, a former chief priest of Chozenji temple in Nagoya and the author of “O-bon no Hanashi” (About O-bon), a Buddhist ritual known as Urabon-e dates to the seventh century.

It was based on a Chinese narrative about a disciple of the Buddha who saved the soul of his late mother, who had fallen into the Buddhist hell of starvation, by offering food on July 15 on the traditional lunar calendar.

Originally a religious event designed to repay one’s parents for their goodness, the practice gradually came to incorporate Japan’s ancient tradition of ancestral worship.

As such, it became an occasion for welcoming home the souls of one’s ancestors and then seeing them off.

The custom spread among the nobility during the Heian Period (794-1185). In the Edo Period (1603-1867), the lively Bon odori dance took hold among the masses.

In modern times, Bon became synonymous with a “great migration” of people traveling by rail, road and air, and causing massive congestion everywhere.

But this year, things are quite different.

At Chozenji temple, parishioners, whose homes priests are visiting to offer prayers, are down this summer to about 30 percent of their number in a normal year.

“O-bon is important because it is the time for remembering and honoring our ancestors,” Gamaike said. “But with more people becoming unaware of its significance, it would be just too sad if the pandemic were to contribute to the erosion of our tradition.”

The National Governors’ Association recently urged the public to refrain from taking homecoming trips.

But the Cabinet minister in charge of the COVID-19 response made a contradictory statement to the effect that the government is not enforcing any uniform restrictions on people’s movements.”

This glaring inconsistency hasn’t helped anyone.

Even for those who are going back to their hometown, the decision could not have been easy at all.

I pray they will not be subjected to hostile glares from others. This is my honest sentiment as someone who had to forgo visiting my parents.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 13

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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