The Japanese Garden celebrates its Hi Matsuri, the Fire Festival, where you’ll be able to witness one of the oldest Japanese traditions: thousands of small wooden tablets inscribed with whatever you want to leave behind are burned in a gigantic bonfire. This September 6, don’t miss the Fire Festival in Buenos Aires and take the opportunity to leave behind all the negativity of your year… by burning it.
What the Fire Festival at the Japanese Garden in Buenos Aires is like: Join the ritual of the wooden tablets
The Fire Festival is a very important annual event in Japanese tradition, and you’ll be able to experience it this September 6 if you visit the Japanese Garden.
When you arrive, you’ll be given a wooden tablet on which you’ll write down all the bad things that happened to you and that you want to leave behind.
Afterward, you’ll place your wooden tablet on a metal tree that acts as a portal of transformation, where all the negative things from your year are trapped. This is where the magic of fire comes into play: the master of ceremonies will set the tree ablaze, creating a bonfire where all the negative things are purified and disappear.
If you’ve never seen it before, it’s a truly mesmerizing ritual that takes place right in the middle of the Japanese Garden’s pond, where the iconic koi fish swim.
Giant bonfire and Japanese drum show
There are always lots of people on the day of the Fire Festival, and that same day there’s also a Japanese drumming—or Taiko—performance, which adds a very special mystique to the whole festival.
The tablet-burning ceremonies during the Fire Festival are scheduled for 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. At 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., there’s a Japanese drumming show.
A full-day outing to enjoy the day
Of course, both before and after the burning of the wooden tablets, you can enjoy all the beauty of the Japanese Garden—its cherry blossoms, its nursery, and, why not, a snack or lunch at its restaurant and tea house, one of the most beautiful restaurants in Buenos Aires.
On September 6, discover one of the most important cultural events of Japanese culture in Buenos Aires, and don’t miss the chance to watch your bad memories burn in the Fire Festival bonfire while you listen to Japanese drums.
👉 Japanese Garden 📍 Av. Casares 2966
📅 Event date: September 6 | Open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 6:45 p.m.
