VIDEO: Floating lanterns celebrate life at Wailoa Park
Hospice of Hilo benefit pays tribute to memory of those departed
Video by David Corrigan
For the 6th year, the beauty of floating lanterns dotted the Wailoa River in memory of loved ones lost.
Every year, Hospice of Hilo invites the community to share remembrance and celebrate life at Wailoa State Park. Although the “Lights of Remembrance” are the picturesque hallmark of the event, the festivities also include a 2.25 mile walk, food, and live entertainment under the large park pavilion.
“This will be a family and community celebration of the entire span of life─from our energetic children to our wise elders,” said Phillip Jones, Hospice of Hilo Spiritual Counselor, in a media release before the event. “We’ll be honoring, through performance, music and speech, the special gifts of each stage of life, and especially how we’re all connected to one another.”
Hospice of Hilo, a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization, has served East Hawaii from Laupahoehoe to South Point since 1983. Hospice of Hilo says it is “a family centered approach to end-of-life care that includes nurses, social workers, counselors and trained volunteers. Hospice care offers emotional and medical support to patients and families facing a life limiting illness and injury. Focused on quality of life, Hospice honors the dignity of each individual. Offering care and comfort when cure is no longer possible.”
This year, uncooperative tides and a deluge of rain did not hasten the heartfelt observance.
Proceeds from the 2010 Celebration of Life will benefit the patients and families served by Hospice of Hilo.
Related Video
facebook comments:
This is absolutely beautiful! I love this festival, and very impressed by the video. I’m a hospice volunteer in Delaware, and I can’t help but think that if your video got the exposure it deserves, every hospice in America would be flooded with volunteers. Thank you for this celebration of life and human connection. I’ve posted it on my Facebook page.
Why didn’t I hear anything about this??! I first read about this nationally practiced ritual last year, and have eagerly wanted to participate since. I recently lost my older brother and this would have really helped me. I didn’t hear about it ANYWHERE. Watching this makes me so sad that I didn’t get to participate. Hilo is an absolute joke when it comes to getting word out about events. Shame.
wouldn’t this be better is candles were user instead of plastic glow sticks and battery powered lights. I love the idea of remembering our departed loved ones in this way but there is a lot of polution added to our shores and endangering our sealife.
To Bob,
If you were to come and ask questions, we would gladly explain things to you. At our 1st floating lanterns we DID have candles, but the people in the boats had a difficult time gathering the lanters after as the melted wax got all over the boats. So we decided to use glow sticks. We DO NOT pollute the ocean, that is why we have two boats down the river to gather the lanterns. Afterwards, we gather the lantern coverings that everyone decorates for their loved ones and take it to Hilo Daijingu Church where the priest blesses it all then proceeds to burn them. We do not just throw them away. As for the lanterns we reuse them again just with different bags each year.
As for Cherdan, I don’t know where you live, but we have quite a lot of publicity for this event on the radio and in the newspaper, so I am sorry that you are NOT SO PROPERLY informed. Say what you wqnt about HIlo, but Hiloans have a lot to be proud of instead of misinformed people like you. Do you come out and volunteer? If not you can shut the hell up.