Hakuju-sai (Okera Festival)

Yasaka Shrine's Hakuju-sai is held on New Year's Day as one of the shrine's New Year rites. The Okera-mairi the night before runs from the evening into the early morning of the New Year: priests light the sacred fire in the lanterns and burn it with okera wood bearing written wishes. Okera is a chrysanthemum-family plant whose dried roots give off a strong scent when burned, long believed to drive away evil; worshippers carry the flame home on a slow match and hang it in the kitchen as a charm against fire.