Obon, When the Cemetery Lights Up

Today’s story きょうの あらすじ

In mid-August, Japan has an event called Obon: a traditional occasion when, once a year, the spirits of our ancestors come to visit us. Every year in this season I go back to my parents' house and visit the grave of my mother, who has passed away. I clean the grave and offer flowers. During Obon everyone visits the graves, so graves with flowers laid before them stand in long rows and the whole cemetery brightens at once. The ancestors sleeping there must surely be glad. My mother does not show herself to me, but in this period I spend more of my time remembering her. As a child I thought these days were nothing more than the summer holidays; since my mother died, this Obon season has come to feel like something special.

From the diary にっきから

Vocabulary ことば

今日のことば、
きいて、まねる。

A new one, tomorrow morning.