Kurama no himatsuri
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This festival is observed annually on October 22nd at Kurama, near Kyoto.
It is a fire festival in which the participants - Iocal people and visitors
-carry lighted torches to the local shrine. Those carried by the men are
huge, and may weigh up to 50kg. The streets are filled with bonfires. At
midnight, the mikoshi (portable shrines) are carried through the lines of
fire to the river, where sacred dances called kagura are performed by
torchlight. In Shinto symbolism, fire purifies all things and on this night
it is believed that no harm will come to the town and all who live there.
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