Tags
Bon, GRRL Traveler, Hawaii, Honolulu, Japan, Na Lei Aloha, Okinawa, okinawan festival, The Dancing Fools Bon Dance Posse, travel, vacation, Wahiawa
Writerly Wednesdays are devoted to all things writerly. I may share a favorite writerly nook or share some new found tool, gadget, widget or app. More commonly, Wednesdays are about my creative process. At least, that is where the aim is targeted. In the archive, you will find a whole lot of nook action.
We’re fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance.” ~Japanese proverb
Summertime in Hawaii means Obon Season. Shortly after mango season’s rush to preserve in pickles, jam, chutney or loaves of quick bread, it’s time to get out of the kitchen and out to a local temple and get your community dance on.
HonoluluMagazine.com photo credit
Bon Odori season officially kicks in to gear with the Memorial Day Floating of the Lanterns. Check out my post In Memoriam for a refresher.
2012 Bon Festival Schedule helps you fill in your dance card from the end of May through early September. On September 1st, the Okinawan Festival signals the beginning of the end, leaving groups of aficionados like The Dancing Fools Bon Dance Posse dreaming of 2013.
One reason for the extended Bon season in Hawaii is the by-now familiar refrain of this blog: Hawaii is a mixed-plate culture. Our traditions are an amalgam of the various heritages that call Hawaii home. The spirit of Obon is more akin to Memorial Day than of Halloween or Día de los Muertos. The ancestral obake (ghosts) haunt us in a benign sort of way. It is a time to understand that we stand on the shoulders of giants, many of them plantation workers.
The Twelve Step Bon Basics
Although each area of Japan and each Temple here in Hawaii has its own variation on the theme. A most common dance echoes the workers in a coal mining region of Japan. The dance is a repetition of twelve steps that can be associated with four basic actions.
- Testing the Waters
Place right foot forward one step, lift foot and replace in same spot. Transfer weight onto right foot. Move left foot forward, stepping twice in the same spot…as if testing the waters before committing to something new.
- Revisit
Push off with the left foot back one step. Repeat with right foot to revisit the very spot where you started.
- Push Forward
Push that coal cart full of coal forward. Stride right, then left, then right then left again.
- Re-establish Base
Dump the coal with a step forward and a flourish. Step back, feet together to establish a new base. Rinse and repeat all 12 steps all night long in a circle.
It takes 12-steps to progress 4 strides, never you mind everyone is ultimately chasing their tail in a circle. It would be highly frustrating to think of bon dancing as a mode of efficient transport, but of course, no one conceptualizes it that way.
What does this have to do with writing?
The question is rhetorical, because I know you are a quick study of my moves. My summer hasn’t been successful in terms of linear measure, but it has been wonderfully creative.
I have started out unsure of my steps. I’ve ventured out testing the waters. I’ve been out there digging for coal by mining more established bloggers for content and direction. I had to take a step back and figure out what was ore and what was debris.
Then I would gain the confidence to stride forward with some well focused progress. Then I would celebrate a mini-victory as I started the dance all over again. With each repetition, my footing got surer. I became less anxious and self-conscious about my footwork and hand placement and more conscious of the music.
Eventually, I was aware of how much encouragement and positive energy I was getting from the community. And with that, I am eager to try the next dance. The next writerly challenge.
Three minute video of Obon Hawaiian-Style
Check out more adventures in culture and travel at GRRL Traveler
This summer seems to have been a challenge for many of the writers in my life. Many, many of the blogs I follow went dark for a great portion of the summer. But success is not always linear. Creativity is often fed by the things we mistake for failures. How was your summer? Leave us your thoughts.
My summer has been about building the discipline to blog regularly. I’m not quite up to daily but these days I want to blog instead of dreading it.
Now I’m going to focus on building audience and creating a solid content plan.
I love hearing about Hawaii – it’s a beautiful place.
Thank you for stopping by, Lisa Helene. Let me know how I can help. We need to get your gravatar updated so we can see your pretty face instead of that big old G up there. If you like what I’m doing here, poke around at my other posts and you can see the road I’m taking. Community is so important. If you are on FaceBook, you can find me at Lara Britt (my authors page), Wordsmith Studio, and SinC Hawaii. You will find links to all of those sites all through this blog as well.
A Hui Hou!
Fun! I loved learning a bit about Hawaiian (and Japanese) culture that was completly new to me.
Wonderful metaphor. My writing project has gone wonderfully linear this summer culminating in my 50,000 word sprint this month for Camp NaNoWriMo. But, of course, that means my platform building has taken a back seat for awhile. In my next “Revisit,” I want to work on ways that help me write blog posts and my WIP at the same time.
You and me both, Joy! I’ve been culling all of the how-to blog posts I’ve been reading and spending more time on my own writing. I need to sprint to the finish. The pressure is on. Not just for Camp NaNoWriMo, but just yesterday I was gifted the opportunity to attend a writers conference. Ironically it is the same weekend as the Okinawan Festival and the end of Camp NaNoWriMo. So I will be glued to the keyboard this weekend. Hope your WIP is going well. Mine is taking some surprising turns. I still haven’t figured out how to upload my stuff to the official site, but I’ve been focused on the blog, WiP and writing community (Wordsmith Studio/ SinCHawaii) stuff. I need to get moving with your exercise prompts…September(?)
I agree with joy above: wonderful metaphor for writing. And I have you to thank for nudging me to dip my toe into the waters of blogging, which I find stimulating and fun. It was just what I needed, except for the fact that I’m doing it in place of finishing my novel (ok, the elongated trip to Scandinavia didn’t help my writing life either). But soon, I think, things will even out and I will be able to juggle it all.
Also, thank you for outlining the dance steps. Now perhaps I can get a few dances in between photographs
I need to catch up with Peter, fellow docent and traveler to Scandinavia. I want to see your pics. Perhaps we can do a few circles around the yagura during the Okinawa Festival. I was just invited to take part in the Spellbinders Con. https://twitter.com/spellbinderscon. Let me know if you are interested.
That photo of the shadow playing the flute or whatever instrument it was, was a really, really nice one.
I wish I could take credit for it. I’m not as talented a photographer as you and Jennifer are in any case. And my health issues are still plaguing me so I don’t get out and about as much as I would like. So this article and some earlier ones were helpful in garnering legal photos. http://www.authormedia.com/2012/08/08/11-places-to-get-a-free-and-legal-photo-for-your-blog/ Most new bloggers (I didn’t at first) don’t know that you can’t just use any old photo that you can Google. If you hit the photo on my blog, it will take you to the artist’s info…or it should. Anyway, the credits are embedded.
Lara, I live for dancing or live dancing or feel totally alive when I’m dancing…What a great article–makes me want to move to Hawaii just to have months of dancing! Though in my adopted country—the Conch Republic– we celebrate every full moon with live music and dancing by the ocean, it’s not all month, but it’s fun
This has been such an interesting creative summer. Meeting all kinds of folk, virtually and finding all kinds of poetry sites I never knew about–Robert is right–he’s a community builder:-)
Welcome Sarav! Any friend of Not Bob is a friend of mine. Community-builder, he is. Oh heck, our dancing spirit isn’t just about the Obon. We have dance groups of all flavors at any day of the week throughout the Islands. Once I get over my illness, I am supposed to be a regular at Hawaii Blues Dancers. We have 2-Stepping down at Nashville Waikiki, we have ballroom dancing at tea time at the Moana Surfrider, Traditional Hula, Tourist Hula, Fusion…
This is beautiful, Lara. Thanks for posting. It makes me think about my own journey as a writer.
Hope all is well!
Is all ever well? As story-crafters, we know all too well that conflict is necessary for character development. Sometimes I wish my character wasn’t so well developed. Hehehe. But is seems as if the entire posse over at Wordsmith Studio had just as interesting of a summer. So glad to be walking the writerly walk with company like yours, Erin.
One of our docents who guides Japanese language tours told me that the Japanese saying regarding “dancing fools” was an approximation of a traditional saying in Tokushima province, but not heard elsewhere in Japan.