YAMAGA, Kumamoto Prefecture--Hundreds of traditional Japanese umbrellas and thousands of bamboo lanterns are warming the atmosphere of the cold winter nights here. The festival, called “Yamaga ...

Lanterns representing a brighter future for Japan were released into the night sky to mark the six-month anniversary of the earthquake. Video courtesy of Reuters.

Obon is a summertime ritual when Japanese people welcome ancestors' spirits home from the Buddhist Pure Land. The people of Nagasaki have a distinctive way to commemorate this. They light ...

Borrowing from the Japanese tradition of obon and other religious equivalents, such as All Souls’ Day, Timbers Kaua‘i celebrated its second lantern floating ceremony on Sunday night as the sun ...

And, from 7 to 9 p.m. that same day, memorial obon lanterns, or chochin, will be lit and feature the names of those who have passed. Donations can be made to the temple to get a loved one’s name ...