Floating lantern ceremony draws 45,000

After three years off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Shinnyo floating lantern ceremony came back strong Monday, setting the waters off Ala Moana Regional Park alight with thousands of flickering memorials.

An estimated 45,000 attended the traditional Memorial Day ceremony, and scores of people lined the sidewalks, the beach and the park’s grassy areas, many of them setting up tents hours in advance.

Retired United Airlines mechanic Bill Fong was one of them. He was there to remember seven people, most of them former airline colleagues who had died only in the past couple of years.

“I’m here to honor them as well as to say farewell,” the Honolulu man said before the ceremony. “There are no goodbyes. For me it’s ‘I’ll see you later.’ You send them on their way. You keep them in your heart. And they will never die.”

After three years of alternative observances, Shinnyo Lantern Floating Hawai‘i again invited the community “to honor fallen service members and loved ones, share in a moment of collective remembrance and express commitment toward building a brighter future.”

The Rev. Craig Yamamoto, community relations liaison of Shinnyo-en Hawaii, said, “We are grateful to return to an in-person event to collectively reflect on the countless and continuing acts of compassion and heroism over the past few years, share in a moment of collective remembrance and generate hope and a sense of renewal toward the future.”

In 2022, Shinnyo-en Hawaii decided not to hold the lantern floating festival in person “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 aired instead on KHON2 and the organization’s social media platforms. In addition, the community was invited to an interactive art installation where people, in groups of only five at a time, could float lanterns in a water feature across from the temple.

This year more than 5,000 floating lanterns set sail in the calm waters off Ala Moana Regional Park in a moving ceremony elevated by a picturesque Hawaii sunset.

Karen Tanabe came to Oahu from Hilo to honor the memory of her late husband, Larry Tanabe, a Hilo postal clerk who died at age 67 following a 17-year battle with lung disease.

“He was ready to go. He suffered enough already,” she said. “He was a Christian, so I know where he is, and I will see him again.”

Holding his floating lantern a few minutes before the ceremony was Rod Tolentino, a former U.S. Air Force airman from Honolulu who was there to honor nine family members and five pets.

One of those family members was his beloved grandmother Maria Saclayan Tolentino, who died at age 82 after coming to America with no schooling and not knowing how to read. Tolentino said he was extremely close to her, and remains grateful that she taught him how to speak Ilocano.

“She was always there for me,” he said. “Any time I had a problem, she was always there to help me through it. When she passed, it really took a toll on me. I didn’t think she would go so soon.”

Ann Tongg and her daughter, Kelina Tongg-Woodall, were at the Ala Moana park to honor Ann’s father, longtime state District Judge Tenney Tongg, who died in March at the age of 90.

Ann Tongg said her father was a humble man who rarely talked about himself or his accomplishments. He learned to fly in the U.S. Air Force and became a pilot with Aloha Airlines and later president of Hawaii Thrift and Loan. After graduating from law school in 1960, he worked as an attorney in private practice and at the state Attorney General’s Office. He was appointed to the District Court bench in 1984 and served until his retirement in 2002.

“He was very calm and nonjudgmental,” Tongg remembered. “He would say only few words but make you think about what you did.”

Tiffany Le and her mother, Ngan Nguyen, were there to honor Nguyen’s parents, Anh Le and Hieu Nguyen.

Tiffany Le said the couple lived in Vietnam but were role models to their six daughters.

“We want to send a message to tell them that we are peaceful and happy,” she said.