34th day of the Omer, (). As a result, weddings, parties, listening to music, and haircuts are commonly scheduled to coincide with Lag BaOmer among Ashkenazi Jews, while Sephardi Jews hold weddings the next day. It is customary mainly among Hassidim that three-year-old boys be given their first haircuts (). While haircuts may be taken anywhere, if possible, the occasion is traditionally held at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron, Israel, or at the Jerusalem grave of Shimon Hatzaddik for those who cannot travel to Meron. Families go on picnics and outings. Children go out to the fields with their teachers with bows and rubber-tipped arrows. , the prayer for special Divine mercy on one's behalf, is not said on days with a festive character, including Lag BaOmer; when God is showing one a "smiling face," so to speak, as He does especially on the holidays, there is no need to ask for special mercy. Bonfires Religious The most well-known custom of is the lighting of bonfires. The custom may originate in symbolizing the "spiritual light" brought in to the world by Simeon ben Yochai. Some have speculated a connection between the bonfires of Lag BaOmer and the festivals of May Day and Beltane which are celebrated by some European cultures around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice on 1 May, and are also celebrated through large bonfires. In Germany it is also not uncommon to see rural men go out in the woods to shoot arrows at demons on May Day, this custom seems strangely similar to the bow and arrow theme on Lag BaOmer. Throughout the world celebrants gather on the night and during the day of Lag BaOmer to light fires. A large celebration is held at the Tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son Rabbi Eleazar in Meron, where hundreds of thousands usually celebrate with bonfires, torches, song, dancing and feasting. In 1983, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Horowitz of Boston reinstated a century-old tradition among his Hasidim to light a bonfire at the grave of Rabbi Akiva in Tiberias on night. The tradition had been abandoned due to murderous attacks on participants in the isolated location. After the bonfire, the Rebbe delivered a , gave blessings, and distributed . Later that same night, the Rebbe cut the hair of three-year-old boys for their Upsherin. For many years, New York based