Bon Odori Japanese Folk Dance Festival

During this period Bon Odori festival time of year, Japanese people have many rituals and customs (welcome bonfire, fireworks, vegetable icon making etc.)... But the biggest fun event is the folk dance. They say it started to depict the joyful dance of the dead who served in hell for their sins and rose from their suffering to heaven. In the moon calendar, o-Bon period was always around full moon night. In old days, villagers would gather in neighborhood field and dance under the bright moon light all night long. Nowadays, it is common to dance to popular folk songs and blues type songs. They have stories and the steps and hand movements tell those stories.

Photo credit: Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican

Reina Medero and her children, Hannah and Ramon Medero, participate in a traditional dance led by Bon-Odori Dance and Torii Taiko drummers on Wednesday at Aurelia Gallery during the Canyon Road Summer Walk.