The pau-hana time came, the rain clouds that welcomed Friday parted, and the people came to Puhi to enjoy the bon odori experience of food, games and, of course, the bon odori.
The pau-hana time came, the rain clouds that welcomed Friday parted, and the people came to Puhi to enjoy the bon odori experience of food, games and, of course, the bon odori.
“Sharyl Lam Yuen has been working really hard on this for quite a long time,” one of the many community vendors said. “She really wanted to make this happen. She even had special bon dance towels made that says ‘Grove Farm.’”
Bon is a tradition with roots in Buddhism that traces its start in Hawai‘i to the waves of immigrants that arrived to work on the plantations. Its origins point to bon being a time to remember ancestors who are believed to return to earth and re-unite with the living family members, resulting in the merriment of the season.
Among those waiting in the seemingly endless lines at the food booths, many political candidates from off-island mingled with the crowd to meet and greet potential voters.
“It takes a village to put on this bon dance,” was the message inked on emcee Beau Acoba’s board, and volunteers mixed in with the crowd that filled the park adjacent to Grove Farm headquarters that was transformed from its farmers’ market scene into one that reflects the color, sounds and flavors of the bon odori season that were acknowledged with the short inter-denominational prayer by Bishop Kosen Ishikawa of Jodo Mission Hawai‘i, who flew in from Honolulu to participate.
Joining him, Mayor Seiji Hagiwara and his delegation from Mimasaka, Japan melded seamlessly into the crowd of residents (and visitors) dancing.
Kaua‘i County Councilmember Felicia Cowden, pleased that the Mimasaka City Council chair is a woman, Etsuko Suzuki, said the group is visiting with the hope of trying to establish a Sister City relationship with Kaua‘i.
”If there’s not enough room in the bon-dance ring, feel free to start another on the inside,” Acoba said as colorfully clad kimono and happi-coat dancers filtered into the bon-dance ring, anchored by a yagura borrowed from the Lihu‘e Hongwanji Mission. The hongwanji’s preschool offered the traditional fish pond, and its Troop 83 Scouts melded with the Aloha Council Scouts of America booth in dispensing assorted beverages, monitoring trash containers and the unseen set-up and take-down process.
And the people enjoyed the evening following three years of no bon dances because of the pandemic shutdown.
