Obon Festival

In the summer of 2002, The New York Buddhist Church and NY de Volunteer came together to organize a traditional Japanese floating lantern ceremony to commemorate the victims of 9/11. The Bon (or O-bon) Festival is a Japanese holiday to honor the departed spirits of the ancestors. Families make or buy paper lanterns on which they write messages to the deceased. The lanterns are then let out onto a body of water and float into the darkness. Easier said than done in New York City. The organizers had to first make their lanterns from scratch and then get permission to let floating candles out into the harbor. Permisson was granted on condition that all lanterns be retrieved. In a uniquely New York story, the city's kayaking community joined in the effort. This video was shot in August of 2003. The Harbor Series is a series of short videos about the ritual and cultural uses of the New York waterfront and was inspired by the Village Voice article: Holy Waters, by Erik Baard The Downtown Boathouse, New York, 2003 runtime: 00:05:28 Will Luers http://solublefish.wordpress.c...

Channel: Education
Uploaded: November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am
Author: WILLluers

Length: 05:29
Rating: 5.00
Views: 553

Tags: buddhism  ceremony  harbor  hudson  kayak  lantern  new  obon  religion  ritual  river  sacred  water  york  

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