ARE YOU DEAD ? 20% OFF !!! -- Fresh & Perfect Fruits for the Dearly Departed

A pear, two oranges, an apple, and three bananas = 1,058 Yen (with Tax)

That comes to about US $8.80 - $9.00 at recent Yen / Dollar exchange rates.

♥ A PRETTIER VIEW : www.flickr.com/photos/okinawa-soba/16706171966/

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I just posted a photo of an old Okinawan tomb, with a caption describing today as NEW YEARS DAY FOR DEAD PEOPLE.

♥ THE OLD TOMB : www.flickr.com/photos/okinawa-soba/16542038698/

Because a Google Search turned up nothing useful to back me up on this, I now offer my own thrown-together caption (and a few photos from 2015) for my Western friends in cyberspace who might have suspicions about my mention of these things.

NOT A JOKE -- NOT A PRANK !

Just in case there are a few folks who think old Soba has gone off the deep end in an attempt to invent a non-existent Okinawan Holiday that's no longer practiced --- or, at the most, something only observed by a handful of old-timers who cling to a disappearing past that is unknown to today's youth --- I am ADDING A FEW MORE PHOTOS I TOOK TODAY at a LOCAL SUPERMARKET in order to show you that neither of the above scenarios is the case.

NEW YEARS FOR THE DEAD

This honorable and still-viable day on the Okinawan calendar is called JUU-RUKU-NICHI in Okinawan, and KYU JUU-ROKU-NICHI SAI (旧十六日祭) in Japanese.

Both mean "Festival of the 16th Day of the Old Lunar Chinese Calendar". However, while the Japanese tend to spell it out, the Okinawans conveniently abbreviate it to just "The 16th Day", and everyone knows prefectly well what you are talking about.

旧十六日祭

This honorable and still-viable day on the Okinawan calendar is called JUU-RUKU-NICHI in Okinawan, and KYU JUU-ROKU-NICHI SAI in Japanese.

Both mean "Festival of the 16th Day of the Old Lunar Chinese Calendar". However, while the Japanese tend to spell it out, the Okinawans conveniently abbreviate it to just "The 16th Day", and everyone knows prefectly well what you are talking about.

THE SPECIAL NEW YEARS GREETING in OKINAWAN

To make it clear, the old and classic Okinawan language greeting for this day is, GUSOU NU SOU GACHI DEEBIRU --- which freely translated means HAPPY NEW YEAR TO THOSE IN THE AFTER LIFE !!!

GUSOU literally means "AFTER WORLD". In English, we can say this Festival or Holiday is for those who have gone on to the "after world", or those living in the "after life".

It's a very busy time where I live out in suburban Okinawa, and the local Supermarkets are filled with people taking advantage of the "After-Life" and "After-World" sales in order to purchase food and other goods to offer to the departed.

In the end, all of this delicious stuff will be eaten by the living, when the dead (for some inexplicable reason) refuse to show up !

My wife, who is a devout Christan, takes no part in all of this. However, old Soba --- who is officially led of Devil --- thinks it's all pretty cool, until it interferes with my personal agenda.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

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Taken on: March 6, 2015

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旧十六日祭

十六日祭

New Years for the Dead

New Year's Day for the Dead

New Years for Dead People

New Year's Festival for the Dead

Day of the Dead

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JUU-RUKU-NICHI

JUU-ROKU-NICHI SAI

KYU JUU-ROKU-NICHI SAI

Festival of the 16th Day

Food Offerings

Food

Offering

Offerings

Supermarket

Old Calendar

Chinese Calendar

Lunar Calendar

Okinawan Customs

Okinawa Custom

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Custom

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