Yesterday afternoon's stifling heat gave way to the slightest of breezes as the sun dipped below the horizon and some 2,200 wooden, rubber and paper floating lanterns set sail off Ala Moana Beach Park.

More than 40,000 people attended yesterday's annual Lantern Floating Hawaii program sponsored by Shinnyo-En Hawaii and the Na Lei Aloha Foundation. It was the largest crowd ever for the Memorial Day event aimed at giving people a way to remember departed loved ones and to call for world peace.

Waipahu resident Chloe Aetonu, 15, attending her first lantern floating ceremony, said being on the beach was much different from watching it on television, seeing pictures or reading about it.

"It's much more alive when you're actually here," Aetonu said. "You feel together because you know you're all remembering someone, experiencing the same thing."

Among the people Aetonu and her clan were there to honor was her grandfather, Pacondo, who died about two years ago. "We miss him a lot," she said, of the man her family called "Park."

Karen MacDonald and husband Dean Lum dedicated a lantern in honor of his mother, Lillian Ann Dela Cruz Lum, who died suddenly just over a month ago.

"We celebrate your life with this lantern," said the personalized vessel. "Good fishing forever."

"She loved to fish," MacDonald said of her mother-in-law, whose remains were scattered off Ala Moana recently.

MULTICULTURAL

This year's festival theme was "Many Rivers, One Ocean," in recognition of the inclusive nature of the event. There are only about 2,000 Shinnyo-En Buddhists in Hawai'i and most of the lanterns floated do not belong to temple members, said Emiko Kaylor, a Shinnyo-En staff person.

"It's about people from different backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, cultures and values," Kaylor said.

This year, the temple gave away 1,200 lanterns to the public yesterday afternoon, about 300 more than last year, Kaylor said (the other 1,000 lanterns were for church members and those who sent their wishes internationally). Shinnyo-En began passing the lanterns out at 1 p.m. and ran out just before 5, she said. The lanterns are free to the public although donations were being accepted on behalf of Ala Moana Beach Park.

The multicultural nature of the day carried over to the stage. German trumpeter Matthias Hofs, with backing from the Honolulu Symphony, opened with Franz Joseph Haydn's Trumpet Concerto 2nd (Andante). That was followed by local singer Christina Souza and a gospel choir, a dance by Halau Hula Olana and a performance by the Shinnyo-en Shomyo Choir.

'CATHARTIC'

A number of people from outside Hawai'i also attended the event, including a large contingent from Japan, where lantern floating got its start.

Bill and Susie Birdsong, who are visiting from Fernandina Beach, Fla., said they appreciated the cultural diversity of the event.

"This is Hawai'i to me," Bill Birdsong said.

Mo'ili'ili resident Hilary Chen, 22, was on the beach with a lantern for a third Memorial Day. But this time, she brought along her sister, Grace Chen, 28, of San Francisco. They expected to walk their lantern honoring both their paternal and maternal grandparents into the water together. Nai Nai and Ye Ye died only recently while Wai Gong and Wai Po passed away when they were very young, Hilary Chen said.

"It's very powerful to be able to do this with other people," she said. "In this society, people typically mourn privately. So to have an event like this is very cathartic."

As in past years, volunteers scooped up the lanterns after the event to be stored and rebuilt for next year's event.