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 ·Japanese Lantern Lighting Festival
The Como Park Japanese Lantern Lighting Festival is Sunday,
Taiko drums, martial arts, Ikebana, sushi and other aspects of Japanese culture, will be featured at the annual Como Park Japanese Lantern Lighting Festival, a family-friendly event, reminiscent of Japan’s annual Obon holiday, on Sunday, August 16, 2009 on the grounds of the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory in Como Park. Obon is an important Japanese cultural and family holiday, at which ancestral spirits are said to revisit their families for three days. Families pay their respects at gravesites and put out offerings of food and drink on a tray before household altars. They also light lanterns or small fires outside the house to symbolically guide the souls to the home. On the last evening of Obon, lanterns again guide the spirits back to their resting places. The Lantern Lighting Festival encompasses Japanese tradition—through music, dance, crafts, martial arts and lanterns. The Marjorie McNeely Conservatory grounds will open at 3 p.m., and live entertainment in the Como Ordway Memorial Japanese Garden and on the main stage will begin at 3:30p.m. Entertainment will include several taiko drumming groups, koto (Japanese sitar), shakuhachis (bamboo flutes), traditional and contemporary dance and singing. Martial arts, Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging), origami demonstrations and a host of other cultural exhibits and demonstrations will line several paths through the grounds. Japanese food and dozens of culturally-related items will be for sale. The day will culminate at dusk with the main event—the lantern lighting. Six stone lanterns and floating paper lanterns throughout the Japanese garden pond and the Frog Pond will create a vision of peacefulness and harmony to commemorate the dead. The Como Park Japanese Lantern Lighting Festival, produced by Como Park Zoo and Conservatory, Japan America Society of Minnesota, and Saint Paul Nagasaki Sister City Committee will be held on Sunday, August 16, 2009 from 3:00pm-9:00pm. Admission is $5.00 per adult (13+), $3.00 per child (3-12) and free for under 3 years of age. About the Como Ordway Memorial Japanese Garden The Japanese Garden opened in 1979 with funds donated by the family of Mrs. John G. Ordway. Mr. Masami Matsuda, a ninth-generation Master Gardener, designed the garden in the chisen-kaiya (strolling pond) style as a gift from Sister City Nagasaki. In 1990-1991, Matsuda supervised a complete renovation of the site, adding a teahouse and roji (tea garden). The Garden stays true to its Japanese traditions, using the elements of rock, water and plants to create a tranquil environment that guests are invited to experience from many angles. The Como Ordway Memorial Japanese Garden is the second Japanese garden to grace Como Park. The first was created in 1904 and disappeared from the Park Commission reports in 1909. The four white granite lanterns in the current garden are originals of the 1904 tea garden.
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