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In the month of August the Ministry of Culture & Events will be starting its own Obon Festival, but in our own way. It is pretty much impossible to do real life customs of Obon Festival, but we would like to keep one of its main points, honoring Japanese ancestors. Instead we'll take this festival and honor those who have perished in the eWorld, those who invited us to play but are no longer around, those that helped us survive in our early days, and anyone else that were simply friends or people we worked with that helped give us a community to belong to in eRepublik.

Were going to create obituaries for them, and honor their time in the eWorld. Honor them the way you believe they would like to be honored, make a creative obituary for them, share the ideals and achievements they once had, let the eWorld know how they perished, and then win some gold for it. The Ministry of Culture and Events wants you to make a creative obituary about fellow players in eRepublik that have died, and let us know how they died. We know you die mainly from inactivity so be creative, make something up, but the more your obituary is related to the eRepublik world, the greater your chances of winning that gold.

For the festival the MoC&E will accept obituary entries, we will judge them based on its closeness to the eRepublik world, and the staff of the MoC&E will choose 2 obituaries to be voted on by the people for the winner. However with low activity the MoC&E will go straight to a peoples vote if we only received 4 or less entries, but if 5 or more people post an entry, we will judge for the 2 best by each staff member giving a score of 1-10, 10 being the best, we'll then add up the points given my the staff and the 2 highest scoring obituaries will be put in the finals for the people to vote on. Make sure you read the rules carefully, and please vote this up, take part, and support eJapan's Ministry of Culture and Events.

Obon Festival Rules

1) You must use a eRepublik player that is dead or is less then 25 wellness/happiness and knowingly inactive.

2) Create a fictional way the player died in eRepublik, e.g. Blahblah was killed in a freak explosion during a meeting of the Korean Parliament, or Blahblahmulti2 died of starvation out in the wilderness while hiding from authorities of various countries.

3) You must list some kind of achievement, ideal, or event that the player had, took part of, or wanted to come true.

4) The obituary must also include the players avatar and date of birth and death, if you don't know the exact day of his death put in a date you THINK he might have died.

5) The MoC&E holds the responsibility of disqualifying entries that fail to follow the rules or anything that is deemed inappropriate.

6) The MoC&E will accept entries for 2 days, take 1 day for judging, and 1 day for the people to vote for a final winner.

5 Gold will be Awarded to the winner.

Quick tip for making the finals
Make it related to the eRepublik world as much as possible, the more your obituary is related to eRepublik, the higher the score you will receive. But that is not all there is to making the finals, so get creative.

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Obon Festival Real Life Info -

Obon (お盆?) or just Bon (盆?) is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the departed (deceased) spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves, and when the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the household altars. It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori.

The festival of Obon lasts for three days; however its starting date varies within different regions of Japan. When the lunar calendar was changed to the Gregorian calendar at the beginning of the Meiji era, the localities in Japan reacted differently and this resulted in three different times of Obon. "Shichigatsu Bon" (Bon in July) is based on the solar calendar and is celebrated around 15 July in areas such as Tokyo, Yokohama and the Tohoku region. "Hachigatsu Bon" (Bon in August) is based on the solar calendar, is celebrated around the 15th of August and is the most commonly celebrated time. "Kyu Bon" (Old Bon) is celebrated on the 15th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, and so differs each year. "Kyu Bon" is celebrated in areas like the northern part of the Kantō region, Chūgoku, Shikoku, and the Southwestern islands. These three days are not listed as public holidays but it is customary that people are given leave

Origins

Obon is a shortened form of Ullambana (Japanese: 于蘭盆會 or 盂蘭盆會, urabon'e). It is Sanskrit for "hanging upside down" and implies great suffering. The Japanese believe they should ameliorate the suffering of the "Urabanna".

Bon Odori originates from the story of Maha Maudgalyayana (Mokuren), a disciple of the Buddha, who used his supernatural powers to look upon his deceased mother. He discovered she had fallen into the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and was suffering. Greatly disturbed, he went to the Buddha and asked how he could release his mother from this realm. Buddha instructed him to make offerings to the many Buddhist monks who had just completed their summer retreat, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. The disciple did this and, thus, saw his mother's release. He also began to see the true nature of her past unselfishness and the many sacrifices that she had made for him. The disciple, happy because of his mother's release and grateful for his mother's kindness, danced with joy. From this dance of joy comes Bon Odori or "Bon Dance", a time in which ancestors and their sacrifices are remembered and appreciated. See also: Ullambana Sutra.

As Obon occurs in the heat of the summer, participants traditionally wear yukata, or light cotton kimonos. Many Obon celebrations include a huge carnival with rides, games, and summer festival food like watermelon.

The festival ends with Toro Nagashi, or the floating of lanterns. Paper lanterns are illuminated and then floated down rivers symbolically signaling the ancestral spirits' return to the world of the dead. This ceremony usually culminates in a fireworks display.

MoC&E Staff
Minister - DankChronic
Deputy Minister -
Graphics - Tanaka Fujimori