Obon Festival 2026 Makawao-Style
For our Hatsubon Services, we were honored to have as our guest speaker the recently ordained Rev. Sydney Shiroyama. Rev. Sydney is from the Palo Alto Temple of the Buddhist Churches of America. Rev. Sydney will soon move to Japan to continue her journey toward fulltime ministry. For our Bon Dance in 2024, she joined us as a lay person and member of the group Bonbu Stories for the Makawao premiere of their new Obon song Lantern Song and new Odori dance. Makawao Hongwanji’s new Bon Dance tradition is to play Lantern Song as the first dance each evening.
For the success of this year’s Bon Dance, we are grateful for the tremendous teamwork of our temple members and friends, our Judo Club, Cub Pack 18, Scout Troop 18, Scout Troop 180, and Cy Yoshizu our ichiban sound engineer and MC/DJ. From set up to operations, and clean up they are Da Bes!!
Adding to the joy of the celebration, Maui Taiko played during the dancing on Friday and Saturday as well performing during Friday intermission and Zenshin Daiko performed enthusiastically during Saturday intermission.
We missed many members and leaders of Scout Troops 18 and 180 who attended the National Scout Jamboree in West Virginia.
In spite of the drizzling weather, everyone made the best of it and enjoyed both nights of this year’s Bon Dance.
Mahalo nui loa to everyone for their contributions!!
Mahalo nui loa to those who came to remember departed loved ones and to dance the night away!!
We are honored to share the traditions of Obon with our Upcountry Maui community.
Videos
Friday July 24 Hatsubon Service
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15pzEn4fzVY
Friday July 24 Bon Dance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IaZzHoTwUU
Saturday July 25 Hatsubon Service
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdC-GXYnUEo
Saturday July 25 Bon Dance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UysQXypb5kE
Dance Video by Ryan Kono
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1741202290354962/?s=single_unit
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