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Instead of the lantern floating festival at Ala Moana Beach on Memorial Day, Shinnyo-en Hawaii is once again offering an interactive experience on its Beretania Street grounds.
This year the community is invited to experience a moment of collective remembrance, harmony and expression at “Shinnyo Lantern Floating Hawai‘i: Space to Heal” at 2348 S Beretania St., across from the Shinnyo-en Hawaii temple.
The space opened Friday evening and will be available through Sunday.
Lighting artist Hideaki Tsutsui this year transformed the outdoor venue into a series of bridges — symbolizing the journey from our world to another — leading to a water feature where participants may float lanterns bearing remembrances, prayers and commitments to action toward harmony and peace.
In 2021, Tsutsui also designed “Many Rivers, One Ocean: Interactive Experience,” an art installation that included a large-scale lantern, where visitors could hang their remembrances and commitments hand-written on special cards.
Prior to the pandemic, participants on Memorial Day would write personal messages on thousands of candle-lit lanterns and set them afloat on the ocean at Ala Moana Regional Park to honor loved ones.
The releasing of the lanterns is a symbolic, collective vow to work toward a peaceful future, where each person commits to strive for their best through expressing their “shinnyo,” a term used to describe “our best selves,” according to organizers.
Shinnyo-en Hawaii said it decided once again not to hold the lantern floating festival at Ala Moana on Monday “in support of our community’s collective efforts to emerge as safely as possible from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
A live TV and internet broadcast was scheduled to air from 6:30 to 7 p.m. on KHON2 and the organization’s social media platforms.
Reservations must be made in advance online for groups of up to five for each 30-minute, in-person experience, but all slots might already be booked. Remembrances and commitments to action also can be submitted online.
Reservations and remembrances can be made at lanternfloatinghawaii.com.
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