Carpe Diem #690: Higan (Equinox)

Hello everyone!   This is Paloma from Blog It or Lose It, and I am helping Chèvrefeuille for the weekend while he enjoys some time with his family and friends.  It’s an honor to be able to help out – and once again – I’m sending a big **thank you** to Chèvrefeuille.  He is enormously busy with Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, Tanka Shrine, Family, and Shuukan – and recently – with the Fairy Tale prompt!  Thank you for sharing your love of haiku with so many people!

 

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For today we’re looking at the Higan festival.  This is a theme Carpe Diem first visited in March of 2013.  Those of you who live in the Southern Hemisphere will be happy to learn that Higan is celebrated for one week in March (Haru Higan) and for one week in September (Aki Higan) – it is a celebration of the Equinox – in which there are equal periods of day and night.   

The term “Ohigan” means “the other shore” or “the shore of Sanzu River”.  In Buddhist literature, this refers to leaving the shore of ignorance and suffering and crossing to the shore of Enlightenment.

Haran no Higan lasts for seven days in March, but “Shunbun no hi” is celebrated on the actual day of the equinox.  On this day, people visit their hometown and tend the graves of their ancestors:

“To help their ancestors make the crossing, family members visit the cemetery to pray, weed graves, wash tombstones, light incense and leave flowers.  According to tradition, food, in the form of ohagi or botamochi (sweet rice balls covered with red bean paste), is left to help nourish their ancestors journey to the next world.” 

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Farmers may use this day to pray for an abundant crop, and there is a folk saying related to higan:

Atsusa samusa mo Higan ma de

[“Heat and cold last until Higan”]

But – as you know – Mother Nature doesn’t care much for folk sayings – as Issa points out in this haiku:

"fair weather by Spring's Equinox"
so they say …
liars!

© Issa

Here are some haiku about Higan to inspire you:

walking on and on
among the endless
blooming higan flowers  

© Santoka Taneda

a lone crow
pensive on its perch
spring equinox

© 2010 Bandit William Sorlien

Here is an Aki Higan haiku for the folks in the Southern Hemisphere:

autumn equinox -
the dead old relatives
visit my dream

© 2006 – Gabi Greve

And of course here is a spring haiku that is part of a series by Chèvrefeuille:

                celebrating the sun
                with narcissus flowers in my hair -
                Spring Equinox

                © Chèvrefeuille

What can I write about higan and the equinox?

There's also this slightly more cheerful haiku - but I didn't have a photo to turn this into haiga:

toddler’s joy:
Daddy’s home before dark
on the equinox 

Probably not my best, but hopefully they will trigger some thoughts about Higan.  :)

This episode is open for your submissions from March 19th, 7 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 23rd, at noon (CET).