Week 22

Memorial Day Lantern Floating Ceremony

Each year on Memorial Day, a Buddhist tradition is carried out here in Honolulu as a way for people of all nations and beliefs to remember their loved ones who have died. Small floating boats are given out to the public where a message of love can be written on one side of the lamp. Then the boat is released into the water with thousands of others. At the end, they are gathered up and recycled for next year's ceremony. This was the first time Romney and I had ever gone to see it for ourselves. There were over 30,000 people there. We met up with Steve and Melissa Moody to watch the release of the boats and then take pictures once we could get close enough to the water to actually see anything. They also had a stage set up where talks were given, local singers performed, and some buddhist ceremonies were performed.

A boat was out in the water with a large camera crane aboard to take video of the boats. Here's a picture on the screen of the lanterns in the water.