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お盆 — going back
お盆 in mid-August is when the dead are said to return home, and so the living return too. Families travel to the household's home town to clean graves and set out offerings, which produces the 帰省ラッシュ: the year's heaviest traffic, booked-out trains, and cities noticeably emptier for a week. Many companies close. Evenings bring 盆踊り, a circle dance in a schoolyard or shrine ground. It is not a solemn occasion so much as a warm one.