Thousands of people went to Magic Island last night for the annual Toro Nagashi ceremony. Toro Nagashi is the Buddhist ritual launching of lanterns bearing prayers for the departed.

A Buddhist ceremony was held before the lanterns were placed into the water at Magic Island. As the canoe launched from shore, it met with eight other canoes with 1,100 smaller lanterns. Photos by Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

"In Buddhism, a light that penetrates darkness symbolizes the wisdom that resolves conflicts and dissipates suffering," said Shinto Ito, head of the Shinnyo-en Buddhist order in Tachikawa, Japan, and the main speaker at the event. "The light of the lanterns can thus be considered the illumination that helps people see each other's cultures, religions and beliefs with clarity and understanding."

Ito also expressed a wish for world peace and harmony among all people.

As the nation remembers its veterans on this Memorial Day, Ito's call for peace reverberated with Carol Nelson, a visitor from Santa Rosa, Calif.

"It was very moving," she said. "We never should have gone to Iraq. We should have stayed in Afghanistan."

The Lantern Floating Ceremony, organized by the Shinnyo-en temple in Hawai'i, precedes the Obon Festival or "Feast of the Dead" — celebrated in the Islands from June to August with dances and other events at Buddhist temples statewide.

A 7th-century tradition in Japan, the Obon festival marks the return of the spirits of the deceased to this world for three days. Food and prayers are offered on their behalf. The festival typically ends with a lantern ceremony, to guide the spirits back to their world.

Shinnyo-en's Ito led a purification ritual before placing six larger lanterns on a double-hulled canoe, flanked by four Buddhist priests. Using a purification stick, she stirred a cup of water drawn at 4 a.m., when it's believed to be the most pure.

As the canoe launched slowly from shore, it met with eight other canoes beset with 1,100 smaller lanterns coming from the south. As they laid their lanterns on the water, about 125 volunteers from shore released their lanterns simultaneously.

"The lantern is a guiding light for the deceased to lead them to the Pure Land," said Rev. Yubun Narashiba of the Jodo Mission Buddhist Temple in Honolulu. The "Pure Land" is the Buddhist equivalent of heaven.

In spite of the ceremony's Japanese roots, the event strove to be inclusive, said Ryan Toyomura, a student minister reverend.

"This was multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious," he said. "It's a time we can all join together — for world peace."