多賀大社の春の古例大祭が昨日（４／２２）執り行われました。今年は祭り日が平日の月曜日だったので人出が 心配されましたが、お天気に恵まれて、正確には分かりませんが人出もそこそこあったのではないかと思われます。 指揮太鼓の音がドンドンと遠くから近づいてくると、おわたりがやって来ると分かって表に出ます。案内のパンフレット によると、関係者全員で午前８時半から本殿でおまつりがとり行なわれるとあり、午前十時半におわたりの行列は先ず栗栖の 調宮神社へ向かいそこで休息。午後１時に栗栖を出発して本社に戻り、今度は馬頭人とお使い殿も加わって町内尼子の打籠（うちごめ）の 馬場に向かいます。打籠のお旅所で祭事を行なって、お渡りの行列は多賀大社へ戻りますが、この行き帰りに行列がカフェの前を お通りになります。騎馬の方々も歩く方々もお渡りのご一行はさぞかしお疲れになったことでしょう。りっぱな騎馬行列の古例大祭でした。Spring Old Festival was held at Taga Taisha yesterday. This year the festival day, April 22nd, turned out to be a Monday and everybody was worried whether many people would come to see because it was the weekday. I don't know the exact number of the people but a pretty good number of people came for the festival because of the fine weather. When we heard the sound of drum from the person who was walking at the head of the line, we recognized that the procession was approaching and stood outside of the front door of the cafe to watch. According to the brochure, the festival starts at 8:30 at the Grand Shrine with all related members and at 10:30 the procession leaves for Totonomiya shrine in Kurusu. After festivities and a break there, they come back to the Grand Shrine again. This time Batohjin (people in charge of the festival) were added to the procession. A procession of 40 people riding horses, about 400 walking, and Mikoshi passed by my house. They all must have been very tired. It was a really big old Spring Festival.
