KAPA‘IA — There was at least an hour’s wait Friday night for flying saucers. Cadillac Joan and her son Matthew came all the way from Michigan. “We were here last year, and came back,” Joan said while watching the ring
KAPA‘IA — There was at least an hour’s wait Friday night for flying saucers.
Cadillac Joan and her son Matthew came all the way from Michigan.
“We were here last year, and came back,” Joan said while watching the ring of volunteers deftly flip and check cooking flying saucers. “We’re actually on our way to the Big Island to attend a quilt show there. But we were here last year for the quilt show and got to take this in, so we thought we would enjoy this before getting to the Big Island.”
Joan was instrumental in bringing the flying saucer tradition to Michigan where they celebrated last summer by having people over and cooking up a Michigan version of the popular morsel.
“It’s kind of a sloppy Joe mix, but a little sweeter,” Joan said as the volunteers worked amidst the symphony of click-clacks from the opening and closing of the molds as volunteers checked whether they were ready.
“Hot!” volunteers piped, the signal that one was done as Matthew intently studied the flow of activity around the ring of gas burners.
But despite the hectic activity, there was still an estimated hour’s wait for the morsels that are commonplace during bon dances.
Lihu‘e Hongwanji Mission opened the bon season which will see members of the Kaua‘i Buddhist Council host a bon dance each week through mid-August.
The dance, symbolic of the joy experienced by one of Buddha’s disciples when his mother was freed from the anguish of pain and suffering, made its way from the Orient with the Japanese workers who came to Hawai‘i to work in the plantations.
According to the Japan 101 Web site, bon means welcoming ancestors’ souls and holding a memorial service for the souls.
Bon festivals are held during bon week, usually in August, and people gather at open spaces and parks to dance to traditional music, the Web site states. This music should be happy music to welcome the ancestors’ souls, and people have a duty to make a happy and welcoming mood.
The practice was quickly adapted to the Hawai‘i lifestyle and today’s bon dance is a community gathering where families come together from all parts of the island to catch up on the latest local events as well as have fun.
Ted Inouye, chairman for this year’s Lihu‘e Hongwanji bon dance, said they were supposed to have fresh sweet corn on sale as part of the country store offering, but the crop is not quite ready.
“We’ll be selling corn next week Sunday at Wal-Mart and Kmart,” Inouye said, noting that people who came to the bon dance could also buy pre-sale tickets for the fresh corn.
Clesson Lee came home from college last week and was busy working in the kitchen, serving up plate lunches of laulau.
“It was real busy when we first opened, but now it’s tapered off,” the college student said, taking advantage of a lull to check his cell phone for messages.
One of the unique facets at the Lihu‘e Hongwanji bon dance is the tossing of plastic eggs containing treats. This is done during the intermission as a way of thanking people for attending the event.
Roots to this practice date back to the days when mochi, or rice cakes, were tossed from the rooftops of temples as a way of thanking the congregation for visiting temple services.
Taiko Kaua‘i, a local taiko group that meets weekly at the West Kaua‘i Hongwanji, Hanapepe Temple, provided intermission entertainment for the Friday night event. They will be hosting a taiko group from Maui for the bon dance at the Waimea temple that is coming up in late June.
The bon dance moves to the Waimea Shingon Mission on Friday and Saturday nights.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.
