Kyoto Gozan Okuribi
(Kyoto, August 16)

The practice of lighting huge bonfires on five mountains around Kyoto during the Bon festival probably dates back to the seventeenth century. The five bonfires, which depict boats and kanji characters with Buddhist significance, are lit between 8 pm and 8:30 pm on the night of August 16 and last for around 30 minutes. The fires are supposed to light the souls of the dead on their journeys back to the spirit world.