Aoi Festival held on May 15th in Kyoto
Aoi Festival(/葵祭, Aoi-matsuri, Hollyhock Festival) ,which is one of the three great festivals of Kyoto was held in that city on May 15th. (http://www.kyokanko.or.jp/aoi/)
The festival is for two shrines of Kamikamo shrine and Shimokamo Shrine both of which are in Kyoto. The main part of the festival is a parade of more than 500 people clad in period costumes of traditional Japanese priests and nobles. The symbolic figure of the parade is Saio-dai(/斎王代, acting head priestess of the two shrines) and this time a 20- year-old female collage student was appointed as the 58th Saio-dai and showed up in the decorated float-sedan in the parade.
Other sacred events followed the parade and tea ceremonies were held for the visitors in the shrines.