After 3 years of absence due to Covid restrictions, the annual Shinnyo Lantern Floating festival returned to Oahu, Hawaii this Memorial Day again. Shinnyo-en is an international Buddhist community and teaches “reality, or the true nature of all things”. The red lanterns provide light and guide the souls of the deceased toward peace. The light also symbolizes sending away the darkness, and welcoming a bright, peaceful future for the upcoming year.

This was my first time seeing this festival, and it was well worth working through the crowds for. The festival was held on Ala Moana Beach, which is only a little over a mile from our home. Evelyn could not attend, because she had foot surgery just a week before and the crowded sand is not conducive to crutches. Since I took my moped, I could wind through the cars and park very close to the launch point.

Arriving early, there was plenty of time to people-watch.

A series of huge video screens were scattered across the beach, allowing everyone to see the official speeches and performances. The festival opened with a speech in Hawaiian by Her Holiness Shinso Ito (top left), with English translations shown on the screen.

As the festival began, approximately a dozen men from fire, police and military were introduced, who then entered the water with surfboards to act as water-based security (upper left). Drummers then played Shinnyo Taiko to call people together (upper right, plus video at the end below). Official photographers and videographers were the only ones allowed on boats, or who were brave enough to take tripods into the ocean. I walked into the water knee high as the beach was packed.

The beach filled up with an estimated 50,000 people by the time the official festivities began. You can see the crowds at Magic Island (bottom left).

The sky got into the act and provided a show for all attendees too. It rained for about 5 minutes — just enough to show us a nice rainbow (upper left), and a 3/4 moon passed overhead (upper right). Flights from the Honolulu international airport pass just off the coast, and the sky provided a colorful backdrop (lower right). Though the festival organizers asked multiple times that there be no drones, there were 4 or 5 people who ignored the request and flew directly over the crowds (lower left).

Attendees are only allowed to float officially provided lanterns, such as those above. The lanterns are made from a very lightweight wood that has been treated to be fireproof. Attendees can obtain one of the available 6000 lanterns per family for free. They then write their own remembrances onto the paper walls. After the celebration, all lanterns are retrieved to be reused the following year. “Remembrances and prayers are removed and handled in a proper and spiritually respectful way.”

With 6000 lanterns being launched, there was an almost unending parade of people to photograph. Above are a few of my favorites of people walking down to the water to launch their personal lanterns. It is a memorable event and extremely well organized.

Here is a short 80 second video to give a sense of the festival. It starts off with a portion of the Shinnyo Taiko musical performance, and then a couple of short segments of people walking their lanterns down to the water.