Events for Aug. 18, 2024

Events

There’s always something exciting happening at the Museum of International Folk Art! Join us for our many programs listed below.

Bon Odori Japanese Folk Dance Festival
Performance Family

Bon Odori Japanese Folk Dance Festival

August 18, 2024
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Join us to celebrate Bon Odori with Torii Taiko drumming, traditional Bon Odori Folk  Dancing and foods, put on by Santa Fe’s Japanese Language Children’s Program in partnership with the Museum of International Folk Art. Program free and open to the public. Museum with admission. What is Bon Odori? Bon or o-Bon literally means “tray”. It originates in the offering tray that people prepare for the spirit of ancestors. In Japanese tradition, it is a 4-day period (either July 13th-16th or August 13th-16th) in the summertime when ancestors’ spirits return to this world and stay with us. In this way it is similar to Day of the Dead in Mexico, and is called “o-Bon” in Japanese. It is considered a fun and festive time of year.

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, we dance to popular folk songs and blues type songs. They have stories and the steps and hand movements tell those stories.

photo credit: 

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.

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August 2024
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