section_path: Practices/Festivals
section_name: Festivals
paragraph_text: Festivals
  
  Public festivals are commonly termed matsuri, although this term has varied meanings—"festival", "worship", "celebration", "rite", or "prayer"—and no direct translation into English. Picken suggested that the festival was "the central act of Shinto worship" because Shinto was a "community- and family-based" religion. Most mark the seasons of the agricultural year and involve offerings being directed to the kami in thanks. According to a traditional lunar calendar, Shinto shrines should hold their festival celebrations on hare-no-hi or "clear" days", the days of the new, full, and half moons. Other days, known as ke-no-hi, were generally avoided for festivities. However, since the late 20th century, many shrines have held their festival celebrations on the Saturday or Sunday closest to the date so that fewer individuals will be working and will be able to attend. Each town or village often has its own festival, centred on a local shrine. For instance, the Aoi Matsuri festival, held on 15 May to pray for an abundant grain harvest, takes place at shrines in Kyoto, while the Chichibu Yo-Matsuri takes place on 2–3 December in Chichibu.
  
  Spring festivals are called haru-matsuri and often incorporate prayers for a good harvest. They sometimes involve ta-asobi ceremonies, in which rice is ritually planted. Summer festivals are termed natsu-matsuri and are usually focused on protecting the crops against pests and other threats. Autumn festivals are known as aki-matsuri and primarily focus on thanking the kami for the rice or other harvest. The Niiname-sai, or festival of new rice, is held across many Shinto shrines on 23 November. The emperor also conducts a ceremony to mark this festival, at which he presents the first fruits of the harvest to the kami at midnight. Winter festivals, called fuyu no matsuri often feature on welcoming in the spring, expelling evil, and calling in good influences for the future. There is little difference between winter festivals and specific new year festivals.
  
  The season of the new year is called shogatsu. On the last day of the year (31 December), omisoka, practitioners usually clean their household shrines in preparation for New Year's Day (1 January), ganjitsu. Many people visit public shrines to celebrate new year; this "first visit" of the year is known as hatsumōde or hatsumairi. There, they buy amulets and talismans to bring them good fortune over the coming year. To celebrate this festival, many Japanese put up rope known as shimenawa on their homes and places of business. Some also put up kadomatsu ("gateway pine"), an arrangement of pine branches, plum tree, and bamboo sticks. Also displayed are kazari, which are smaller and more colourful; their purpose is to keep away misfortune and attract good fortune. In many places, new year celebrations incorporate hadaka matsuri ("naked festivals") in which men dressed only in a fundoshi loincloth engage in a particular activity, such as fighting over a specific object or immersing themselves in a river.
  
  A common feature of festivals are processions or parades known as gyōretsu. These can be raucous, with many participants being drunk; Breen and Teeuwen characterised them as having a "carnivalesque atmosphere". They are often understood as having a regenerative effect on both the participants and the community. During these processions, the kami travel in portable shrines known as mikoshi. In various cases the mikoshi undergo hamaori ("going down to the beach"), a process by which they are carried to the sea shore and sometimes into the sea, either by bearers or a boat. For instance, in the Okunchi festival held in the southwestern city of Nagasaki, the kami of the Suwa Shrine are paraded down to Ohato, where they are placed in a shrine there for several days before being paraded back to Suwa. These sort of celebrations are often organized largely by members of the local community rather than by the priests themselves.