Waipahu O-bon festival is the first of the season

WAIPAHU—As summer begins, Oahu’s first O-bon event of 2010 takes place at Hawaii’s Plantation Village (HPV) in Waipahu on June 5.

The Plantation Village, located next to the Waipahu Cultural Garden Park, in its 20th year of participation with the O-bon festivals, has been pushing to rejuvenate the tradition in the community.

O-bon is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor ancestral spirits. It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori or “Bon Dance” and colorful paper lanterns are made to guide the spirits back to celebrate with their family and friends.

“This goes back a long time ago, during the plantation days here, there were two Buddhist temples in the east and west camps and they would hold festivals dating back to the early 1900s,” said Jeff Higa, the Executive Director at the Hawaii Plantation Village. 

The festivals are all summer long as there will be many other festivals held at different Buddhist Temples or Hongwanjis every weekend leading up to the end of the season Okinawan Festival in August. The folks behind the HPV festival happy to be the first to kick off the celebrations.

“The turnouts in the past have been really good,” Higa said. “It seems more and more people are coming out, so to be the first of the season we are really looking forward to it. We like to focus on west side groups to come and perform, so we invite groups on this side of the island to participate and that’s always good to have groups from this area to be represented.”

The festival begins at 4:00 p.m. with an opening ceremony followed by food sales and the Bon Dance at 6:00 p.m. featuring various dance groups including Iwakuni Dance Group and Waipahu Hongwanji. Admission and parking is free. Higa also said for those who have never been, you don’t have to have Japanese background, but just an open mind, and a want to learn.

“It’s a real traditional Japanese festival, you can learn a lot from it,” said Higa. “The food is really good, and so are the performances. It’s a real friendly atmosphere so it makes it a good place to learn.”

For more information visit http://hawaiisplantationvillage-info.com/home.