Why is she running?

Here running is a shrine maiden of Kasuga Grand Shrine, wearing a beautiful crown of wisteria flowers. The shrine maiden is supposed to behave gracefully. Why is she running? Because it is one of the busiest days in Kasuga Grand Shrine. The luckiest day(大安 Daian) in the old fortune-telling calendar, in which six different fortunes come in the order, falls on Sunday. So there are more ceremonial occasions than usual.

When Japanese people hold special ceremonies such as a wedding ceremony, a one- month- old baby’s blessing ceremony and so on, many of us still examine the fortune-telling calendar and choose the luckiest day which usually comes once in every six days. Many calendars and pocket diaries tell us six days cycle in the fortune-telling calendar. There are no scientific proofs at all, but this idea is deeply rooted in our DNA. Really Japan is a wonderland where the old and the new coexist side by side in harmony.

Why don’t you visit Kasuga Grand Shrine especially on the day when the luckiest day falls on Sunday or a national holiday, so you will have more chances to see happy ceremonies.

Those days are March 14th and May 4th in spring 2010.

keiko

-NARAWALK Guide

A strange tree

I found a strange tree with many white pieces of paper on its branches on the way to Kasuga Grand Shrine.

They seem to be Omikuji (fortune) paper but why did peple tie them on this tree?

It is standing more than 200 meters away from the main building where Omikuji are sold.

Yoko
-NARAWALK guide

(posted by proxy)