2.FESTIVALS OF ISE GRAND SHRINE
To offer thanks for divine grace, or to pray for divine protection, more than one thousand five hundred ceremonial observances and events are held throughout the year. Since ancient times, the annual ceremonial cycle in Ise Grand Shrine has been based upon the agricultural cycle.
Please take a look at the distributed sheet. No. 3. presents a list of the festivals observed at Ise Grand Shrine. The italicized names of festivals are Japanese names. The festivals typed in boldface are directly concerned in the Divine Harvest Festival(Kannamesai) conducted in October. This is the most important festival and I will explain details afterwards.
The first major ceremony of the year is the Festival of Prayer for Good Harvest(Kinensai) in February. At this festival prayers are offered for a plentiful harvest.
Thereafter, during the year, other ceremonies take place. For example we have such as the Festival of Prayer for Mild Weather(Kazahinomisai) in May and August. Shinto preists pray for fair weather and adequate rains for the rice harvest.
There are also other rites associated with the agricultural process in Jingu's rice paddies, such as the Rice planting Ceremony(Otauesai) in which rice seedlings are planted, and the Harvesting Rice Ears Ceremony(Nuibosai) when rice is first ritually harvested.
However, the annual ceremonial cycle culminates in the Divine Harvest Festival(Kannamesai), in mid-October. This ceremony is the most important annual ceremony conducted in Jingu. The first fruits of the rice harvest are offered to Amaterasu Omikami. Rice and other food offerings are presented to the kami twice, at 10 o'clock in the evening and again at 2 o'clock in the morning, first in Geku on the evening of October 15th and the morning of 16th, and in Naiku on 16th and 17th. In both Geku and Naiku, at noon following the second offering of sacred foods, an Imperial envoy presents offerings of silk and other materials to the kami in the ceremony of the Hohei.