Bon Dance Season!

Magic in the air

Back when we lived in Honolulu, one special weekend each August we would walk up Manoa Valley. Past stately older homes with established gardens. Closer and closer, to a hidden alcove. With twilight falling, faint snippets of music float by, carried by the breeze. A beautiful moon would rise from behind the high valley ridge, huge and illuminating. Hurry! It's starting! Our destination: the lovely Koganji Temple. At last! Music, lights, people, food and dancing. Time to greet your neighbors and soak up another...Bon Dance!

Where did this stuff come from, anyway?

Hawaii has a long pattern of single-industry domination. This began with stripping the forests of fragrant sandalwood in the early 1800's. Next came servicing the whaling industry. "King Sugar" had the longest run of all. Although its reign has come and gone, it shaped the lives of generations of Islanders. It's been replaced by the newest god demanding regular blood sacrifice: tourism.

Plantation days

After being discovered by Europeans, the native Hawaiian population rapidly declined--due to introduced diseases and to social upheaval. A century later, when sugar plantation became well-established, plantation owners felt compelled import labor. This practice started with Chinese, then Japanese. Portuguese and Puerto Ricans also arrived, in smaller numbers. The last large ethnic group imported to work in agriculture was Filipinos.

All groups brought food and traditions which remain important in island life to this day. These immigrants, and their children, also shared a common heritage of living in plantation housing, called camps. They were humble workers, intentionally kept on the lower rungs of the old power structure. Eventually, those barriers were torn down. The American success story, if you will. Hard work, education and perseverance--payed big dividends for the generations that followed, today's doctors, lawyers and politicians.

Plantation life was also the incubator for powerful labor unions and the rise of the Democratic party. Two forces that largely ran Hawaii for the last 50 years, for better and worse.

Early Japanese immigrants were mostly Buddhist. Pretty soon, every good-sized town in Hawaii had a Buddhist temple to serve their congregation. The tradition of Bon Dances in Hawaii was begun.

Bon Dances then and now

When I was a little girl on Maui, Bon Dances were attractive, but intimidating. They're night events, featuring lanterns marked with family names. Everyone enjoyed the food booths. Anyone could watch. But dancers were expected to have a kimono and a fan. And to practice beforehand. Eventually, I had my own obi-sashed kimono and a pretty fan to stumble my way through some of the easier dances.

Today, most temples are much less strict. At Manoa Valley's Koganji Temple, for example, the MC on the PA system is quick to say that all are welcome, and enthusiastically insists "You must dance! Don't be shy! No one should leave without trying at least one!"


This Bon Dance also includes a fine exhibition of Taiko drumming.





Bon Dances are still about all the good stuff: "shave ice" (snow cones) and other delicious food. Music, family and religion. It's festive time to remember one's ancestors and pay proper respect to by-gone traditions.


Bon Dances in Hawaii have become a nostalgic event for all ethnic groups. For old-timers who remember and for newcomers who want to touch the past.

Bon Dances take place throughout the islands. This year's schedule concludes in September.