{"id":6005,"date":"2016-04-02T11:33:18","date_gmt":"2016-04-02T02:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/?p=6005"},"modified":"2021-03-10T10:10:41","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T01:10:41","slug":"nara-omizutori-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/nara-omizutori-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Nara’s Thousand Year Old Omizutori Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
For over 1000 years, the annual Omizutori (\u304a\u6c34\u53d6\u308a) festival has been held at the Nigatsu-dou temple in Nara. With such a far stretching history, it is believed to be Japan’s oldest continuing Buddhist tradition. The festival originates from (at least as the story goes) a party thrown by the founder a long time ago. He invited thousands of Gods to his ceremony, but the God Onyu-myojin was late because he was busy fishing. I do like how these Gods are so human sometimes… To make up for his tardiness, Onyu-myojin caused scented water to sprout from where he stood, and thus holy water springs at this place just once a year during the festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One thing about the festival is that it starts at 19:00, so you have most of the day to enjoy Nara beforehand. Of course you should go to the Nigatsu-dou temple as early as possible to secure a good spot. This is something I didn’t do, and regret it. I can say that between 18:00 (when I arrived) and 18:30 the crowed almost doubled. In other words make sure to get there no later than 18:00 to avoid a really bad spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n