Lanterns

Wrapping up the Lantern Floating Hawai‘i theme week is a shot of ... the lanterns.

Lanterns honoring the dead are floated to sea, a Japanese Buddhist ritual called tooroo nagashi. For this event, people write the name of a loved one, and sometimes a short message on the paper walls around the candle.

Normally, the winds are off-shore which will carry the lanterns out toward the open ocean. However, this year, we had southerly (on-shore) winds throughout the weekend, though weather forecasts had off-shore winds for Memorial Day. The winds did not shift, and when the lanterns were released, they floated back toward shore. I got this shot right after the broadcast ended, and before we began to break down our video equipment.

KGMB has the broadcast of the event on their website.