Haka Mairi - Grave Visiting
The practice of visiting and tending ancestral graves.
Haka mairi involves regular visits to family graves, especially during Obon, spring and autumn equinoxes, and death anniversaries. Families clean the grave, offer flowers, incense, food, and drink, and pray for the ancestors' peaceful rest.
In tending the graves of our ancestors, we tend the roots of our family tree.
Grave visiting maintains the vital connection between living and deceased family members.
Folk traditions
Written about in
- What Shinto says about family and ancestors
Grave visiting is practical work: cleaning the stone, bringing flowers, incense, food and drink. It clusters around Obon, the equinoxes and death anniversaries.