For the first time since 2019, the Venice Hongwanji Buddhist Temple held their Obon Festival on July 16-17.
This was a two-day, in-person festival, offering delicious food, fun and games, a silent auction and opportunity drawing, and sales of Obon T-shirts and merchandise.
The highlight of the weekend was Bon Odori on both nights, as instructors Judy Hopfield and Julia Ueda led nearly 1,000 dancers from Venice Hongwanji and friends from temples and community organizations across Southern California and beyond.
The expressions of joy and the energy and spirit exhibited by all the dancers showed just how grateful and happy everyone was for being together again.
The featured food offering was Mamechan’s Obon Dinner (Mamechan is the Venice Hongwanji mascot) guided by Chef Chris Ono, which included chicken teriyaki, wonton, andagi (Okinawa dango), tsukemono and rice. Also on the menu were chili rice, chicken salad, and sushi. Our middle-schoolers (Sangha Teens) prepared shave ice and kintoki.
Our many volunteers ranging from ages 5 to 90 worked tirelessly yet happily to make this a huge success.
Our awesome Obon logo was designed by our talented artist Dustin Noriyuki, and was printed on special Obon T-shirts and our custom label Obon popcorn.
The theme for this year’s Obon was #togetheragain, and we hope it will be the first of many more to come. Thank you to those who supported the return of our Obon Festival, and we look forward to meeting again next year.
Photos by J.K. YAMAMOTO/Rafu Shimpo (except where noted)