All Buddhist events are based on the idea of gratitude, including the week of O-Higan held twice a year. There are two meanings: One is to express thanks to our ancestors and to understand how important life is; the other is to obtain a peaceful mind through Buddhist practices. Expressing thanks to one’s ancestors means to understand gratitude religiously. As a result, we hold a service to pray for our ancestors, but sometimes in today’s busy society, we become lazy and forget to pray for them.

Nichiren Shonin said in one of his letters, “Although parents raised ten children with their love, the grownup children would not take care of their mother. Though all wives want to sleep with a warm husband, there is no wife who wants to keep her mother’s cold feet warm. Even if a person takes care of his parents well when they are alive, and after the parents passing he faithfully holds Memorial Services properly for three years, after another ten years no one takes care of his parents anymore.” (Gyobu Saemon-no-jo Nyobo Gohenji)