Festivals and Events

Kluane National Park and Reserve Canada Photography Kalen Emsley

Each Memorial Day, thousands gather at Ala Moana Beach Park in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, to set lanterns afloat in remembrance and hope. Photography: Nicole Tow.

Shinnyo Lantern Floating Hawaiʻi – a ceremony of remembrance and hope

By Josh Chandler

Briefly …

Each Memorial Day, thousands gather at Ala Moana Beach Park in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, to set lanterns afloat in remembrance and hope. The Shinnyo Lantern Floating Hawaiʻi blends Buddhist tradition, Hawaiian culture, and universal compassion in a sea of light.

As the sun sinks into the Pacific, Ala Moana Beach Park falls quiet. Thousands gather along the shore, their lanterns glowing softly in the twilight, each light carrying a name, a prayer, or a memory. Slowly, the lanterns drift out across the water, their reflections multiplying until the ocean itself seems alive with flame. This is the Shinnyo Lantern Floating Hawaiʻi – a ceremony of remembrance and hope that transforms Honolulu’s shoreline each Memorial Day into a sea of light, inviting locals and travellers to pause, reflect, and connect.

The Shinnyo Lantern Floating Hawaiʻi ceremony traces its roots to a centuries-old Buddhist tradition of toro nagashi, or lantern floating, where lights are set upon rivers and seas to guide the spirits of the departed. In its current form, the ceremony was founded in 1999 by Her Holiness Shinso Ito, head of the Shinnyo-en Buddhist order. She envisioned it as a gift to Hawaiʻi – not only as a Buddhist rite but as a universal gesture of compassion, remembrance, and harmony.

Today, it transcends religious boundaries. Families and friends inscribe messages to loved ones on the lanterns, while others write wishes for peace or healing. Each lantern becomes both personal and communal, carrying the weight of memory while joining thousands of others on the tide. The Shinnyo Lantern Floating Hawaiʻi has become one of Hawaiʻi’s most moving public observances, blending Buddhist ritual, Hawaiian aloha, and global participation into a ceremony that feels both ancient and deeply contemporary.

“The Shinnyo Lantern Floating Hawaiʻi has become one of Hawaiʻi’s most moving public observances, blending Buddhist ritual, Hawaiian aloha, and global participation into a ceremony that feels both ancient and deeply contemporary.”

The timing is also deliberate. Held every Memorial Day, it honours not just personal loss but also collective sacrifice. Observed for 157 years, Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the country’s military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May (25 May in 2026) and is the unofficial beginning of Summer in the United States.

The evening unfolds with a rhythm that feels not only ceremonial, but deeply human. The program begins with oli, traditional Hawaiian chants, alongside Buddhist prayers, setting a tone of reverence that bridges cultures. A blend of taiko drumming, Hawaiian song, and choral voices follows, carrying across the park and out over the water.

At the heart of the ceremony is the lighting of the lanterns. Volunteers, many of them from the local community, prepare thousands of wooden bases topped with candlelight and paper shades. Participants are invited to inscribe their lanterns with names, messages, or prayers at writing stations set up throughout the park earlier in the day. These inscriptions are deeply personal – a grandmother remembered, a friend lost, or simply a wish for peace in the world.

When the lanterns are released, they are carried out across the waves – some by volunteers wading into the water, others launched from canoes that wait just beyond the shore. As dusk deepens into night, the sight of thousands of glowing lights drifting together across the dark water is both intimate and vast – each lantern an individual story yet together forming a luminous tide of memory and hope.

“… the sight of thousands of glowing lights drifting together across the dark water is both intimate and vast – each lantern an individual story yet together forming a luminous tide of memory and hope.”

The ceremony closes with words of gratitude and blessing, followed by the gradual dimming of the shoreline as the crowd disperses. Yet the image of the lanterns lingers, carried away on the currents, leaving participants with a sense of calm, connection, and renewal.

When the lanterns are released, they are carried out across the waves – some by volunteers wading into the water, others launched from canoes that wait just beyond the shore. Photography: Oahu Surfa.

For a solo traveller, the Shinnyo Lantern Floating Hawaiʻi can be an unexpectedly profound experience. At first, the sheer scale of the gathering is striking – tens of thousands filling Ala Moana Beach Park, yet there is no sense of crowding. Instead, there’s a collective hush, as if everyone has agreed to set aside the noise of daily life for one evening.

Moving through the park alone, you are free to linger at the writing tables, to choose your words without distraction, and to watch how others approach the ritual with reverence or quiet tears. In those moments, solitude feels less like being apart and more like being present – an observer drawn into a current of shared remembrance.

When you step to the water’s edge and release your lantern, it becomes a small act of belonging. You may not know the people around you, but your lantern drifts alongside theirs, part of a shared sea of memories and hopes. It is this paradox that stays with many solo travellers – the complete awareness of standing alone, and yet at the same time being woven into a larger circle of humanity.

You can learn more about Shinnyo Lantern Floating Hawaiʻi – including how to volunteer or have your own lantern – here.

Josh Chandler is a freelance writer based in the United Kingdom.