FOR MEMORIAL DAY 2006

I know alot of people have some traditional things they do for Memorial Day, be it family reunions, the race, or whatever. I would like to share with you a beautiful ceremony they do here.
It is called Lantern Floating Hawaii.
In the afternoon you can go to Magic Island for entertainment and food, music, dancing and even the wonderful, exciting Taiko drums.
It is a celebration of life and death.

It is a time-honored Buddist rite to comfort the spirits of the deceased and are said to ferry spritis "from the sea of delusion to the shores of salvation."

It is absolutely beautiful to see. Be whatever God you worship, this is a human celebration. You can buy a canoe with a lantern on it and enter your deceased names onto the lantern so they may have safe passage. Every last one is lit up. They have over 1,000 of them and it is a sight to behold. They put them onto large canoes and they are paddled out into the ocean and set free at sunset.
I can't tell you the emotions we saw among all the religions when we went.

If you have a few free moments, please enjoy the website. Mahalo.

www.lanternfloatinghawaii.com