Visit the Lantern Floating Hawai'i website for local information and for instructions for participating in a virtual lantern floating for your own remembrances. MORE
Every year on Memorial Day, more than 40,000 residents of Hawaii and visitors gather at Ala Moana Beach Park to honor loved ones and generate hope toward the future. This year’s ceremony, on May 25, 2015, was officiated by Head of the Shinnyo-en Buddhist Order, Her Holiness Shinso Ito.
The event included music and a ceremonial lighting of the Light of Harmony, leading up to the floating of lanterns onto the Pacific Ocean. Those wanting to personally float a lantern received one at the Lantern Request Tent on the event day on a first-come, first-served basis.
The first Lantern Floating Hawai'i was held at Ke'ehi Lagoon on Memorial Day, 1999 and has grown each year in response to community demand. Shinnyo-en and the Na Lei Aloha Foundation have nurtured the community event as a vehicle for cross-cultural cooperation, understanding, harmony, and peace. Preparations for the ceremony engage hundreds of Honolulu volunteers each year.
Links
Watch the 2015 Lantern Floating Hawaii Video online
Tricycle Magazine Publishes Interview with Her Holiness Shinso Ito
Lantern Floating Hawai'i YouTube
Drumming Beyond Oneself: Shinnyo Taiko Drumming at Lantern Floating Hawai'i