Dear Friends,
On behalf of Konohana Family, I would like to announce that we had such a beautiful festival and rituals beginning on January 28th this year with a lot of laughter, tears and joy, and closed the whole process on February 4th.
Thank you for bringing water from your region for the “Fuji Sengen Konohana Matsuri (Festival) 2016”! We have received sacred water from 33 countries (59 places) internationally, and 22 places in Japan. In total, sacred water from 34 countries, 81 places were fused together into one pot and heated.
The main day of the festival on January 30th began with this ritual to heat the water. When water is turned into steam and steam goes up, the divine can come down into the festival with steam as its vehicle. When the festival proceeds, people purify their spirits and dance together all day. As a result, they can remember the life purpose of becoming one with the divine, which they have forgotten for a long time. At the end of the festival, the heated water was spread around the whole Earth so that this sacred water reminds all the people in the world of the importance of purifying their spirit.
On February 3rd, the ritual of fire and water was offered. All the materials used in the festival were burned to return to the divine. Also, the portion of sacred water used in the festival was poured into a sacred river in this area in order to return it to the ocean, the source of the Earth.
Originally in Japan, politics and festival have the same origin and both were pronounced as, “Matsuri Goto.” “Matsuri” means improving our spirit in order to serve for the world and people, and also live together with the divine. Therefore, we consider this festival as a ritual to breathe life into this world so that true peace prevails on Earth. That is why, it is important to live with the spirit of “Matsuri” in our daily life and Konohana Family members practice it every day.
We deeply appreciate everyone who participated in this sacred ritual in various ways.
We hope you will have a chance to come over and join the festival next year to experience the unity with the divine and spread harmonious vibrancy to the whole Earth together!
with warmest regards,
Michiyo Furuhashi
on behalf of Konohana Family
Digest Photos of Fuji Sengen Konohana Matsuri
Ritual to pray for the water at the opening of the Festival.
Various Demons show up in this festival. Demons are considered as Gods, and urge us to look at our ego in our heart. When each one of us becomes aware of the ego in our heart and transform it to use for the bigger purpose with a wide worldview, we can make this world a harmonious place. They are a powerful reminder.
Various dances were offered by different age groups, and also all the participants danced together around the heated pot to release our own ego to become an instrument of the divine.
At the end of the festival, young guys dance energetically, and spread the hot water with special brushes on the attendees. People who get splashed can live healthily all through the year.
After the festival, we burned all the materials in a bon-fire and returned them to the divine, and also, we returned the portion of fused water from the pot to the sacred river with a ritual.
It would be fantastic if you kindly send us sacred water from your region for the next festival on January 27th, 2017.
Postal address is Konohana Family, 238-1 Nekozawa, Fujinomiya, Shizuoka, JAPAN 419-0302
hermoso! muchas gracias!