Matsuri is the Shinto festival, and, underneath the festivity, the act of serving the kami. The word comes from a verb meaning to serve or wait upon, and at its core a matsuri is the ceremonious hosting of a deity: welcoming the kami, offering it food, sake, music and dance, entertaining it, sharing a meal in its presence, and seeing it off again. A developed matsuri runs through recognizable stages, purification, the summoning of the kami, offerings and the sacred dance called kagura, the communal feast (naorai), and frequently a boisterous procession in which the deity is borne through the streets in a portable shrine, the mikoshi, so that its blessing passes over the whole community.
The range is enormous, from hushed rites conducted by priests alone to vast civic festivals that fill a city for days. What they share is a purpose: to mark the turning points of the year, to renew the tie between a place and its guardian kami, and to gather the community around the sacred. For many people in Japan the matsuri is Shinto in its most living and joyful form.