Hana Matsuri Flower Festival in Japan
April 8 · Level 4 · #1502 of 2238
Hana Matsuri is a Japanese Buddhist celebration of the Buddha’s birth. Its flowers recall the garden at Lumbini where, according to Buddhist tradition, the future Buddha was born.
How it is celebrated: temples place a small statue of the infant Buddha inside a flower-decorated pavilion. Visitors pour sweet amacha over the figure in a ritual bathing ceremony, and some communities organise children’s processions.
Despite being called tea, amacha comes from the leaves of a particular type of hydrangea, not the tea plant. Its sweetness comes from compounds in the plant itself.