Illuminating acts

Fifteen-year-old Naomi Tse spent part of her Sunday afternoon reassembling wooden lanterns for the 14th Annual Lantern Floating Hawaiian Ceremony and was so humbled and inspired that she hopes to launch her own lantern for the first time to honor her recently deceased grandmother.

Tse, 15, of Pearl City, knew little about the annual lantern ceremony to honor the dead before she joined her fellow Moanalua High School students, a group of 15 high school students from Canada and a couple of dozen adult volunteers at the Shinnyo-En Hawaii Buddhist Temple on Sunday.

After putting back together lanterns that will be used by strangers to honor their own deceased loved ones, Tse called the work on Sunday "beautiful" and "really inspiring."

Now she hopes to attend the May 28 ceremony at Magic Island to remember her maternal grandmother, Kazuko Shi­ra­ishi, who died in January.

Volunteers reassembled 180 lanterns Sunday which will become part of the annual Memorial Day flotilla of 750 wooden lanterns and more than 2,200 lanterns made from artificial materials.

More than 40,000 people are expected to gather at the water’s edge this year to see the lanterns that will bear lighted candles, messages, remembrances and prayers from loved ones.

Until then, volunteers will spend nearly every weekend at the Shinnyo-En temple preparing for the Memorial Day ceremony.

Sunday’s volunteers included 15 students from Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary School in Surrey, British Columbia, who came to reassemble lanterns for people they will never meet, as part of a week spent in Hono­lulu performing community service projects.

"It’s pretty touching to know that what we’re doing is going to help someone feel better," said Preet Buttar, a 15-year-old sophomore from Surrey.

Fellow Lord Tweedsmuir student Maggie Parkhurst-Bartel, 17, said she felt good knowing that someone from somewhere around the world might write a heartfelt, personal message to be carried by one of the lanterns she assembled.

While she would love the opportunity to attend the Memorial Day ceremony to honor her grandfather Rod Parkhurst — who died two years ago at the age of 73 — Parkhurst-Bartel will fly back to Canada with the knowledge that her efforts might touch someone from a completely different part of the world.

"Everyone comes from different cultures," she said. "This helps everyone come together."

For more information about the 14th Annual Lantern Floating Hawaiian Ceremony or to volunteer, call Na Lei Aloha Foundation at 942-1848 or email information@naleialoha.org.