Floating lanterns are memorials to departed
 |
| Candle-lit lanterns were loaded aboard canoes and placed in the waters off Ala Moana Beach Park during the annual lantern-floating ceremony, a Buddhist ritual.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser |
| • | Ceremony honors all who sacrificed |
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
Timing is everything. Toro Nagashi, the Buddhist ritual launching of lanterns bearing prayers for the dearly departed, usually takes place in obon season in July and August, when ancestors are paid homage each year.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
But yesterday was Memorial Day, when most Americans are thinking about the spirit world. So for the past five years, that is the day that Shinnyo-En Hawaii, a Buddhist order with a temple in Mo'ili'ili, has chosen for its observance, and for the past two years it's been at Ala Moana Beach Park.
Roman Malaki, left, stepped carefully before launching a candle-lit lantern into the waters off Ala Moana Beach Park yesterday during the annual lantern-floating ceremony presented by Shinnyo-En Hawaii. Tulitoa Teo, right, waits for the signal. Both are members of the Waipahu Polynesian Club.
"Since in America, Memorial Day is so important, the archbishop felt it was a chance to make it more relevant to them," said the Rev. Given Tokunaga of the Shinnyo-En temple. He was referring to Archbishop Shinso Ito, daughter of the order's founder, Shinjo Ito, and the central figure in the religious rite.
And timing seems to be excellent, from the choice of the season to the precision of the complex proceedings, which videocameras captured for crowd display on big screens and for worldwide broadcast via satellite feed.
The turnout was impressive:
Estimates yesterday ranged from 5,000 to 6,000 people packing the shoreline and park areas from the tip of Magic Island to nearly the center of the park.
The procession of celebrants was a Pacific Rim collaboration of Buddhist priests and hula dancers, each performing their respective style of chant, sober and meditative. Ito struck a small bell as priests chanted for the salvation of souls. Musicians played, the flowers and lanterns were blessed, the sun set, the outrigger canoes paddled into position and 1,100 lanterns were lit and collectively shimmered as they bobbed in the calm surf.
"They start planning a year in advance," said Jan Lubin, a friend of a church member who had staked out a peaceful spot far from the madding crowd.
Peace is the aim of Shinnyo-En, which "offers our sincere wish to the people of the world to bask in peace and happiness," Ito said, speaking through an interpreter.
Before the ceremony, there was taiko drumming and orchestral music while adherents to the faith made $5 donations to purchase papers bearing their own prayer requests. An hour before the rites began at 6:30, the prayer slips were placed on the lanterns, which were loaded aboard the canoes.
Symbolically, Ito said, the lanterns convey the spirits from "the shore of suffering to the shore of happiness."
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
