HONOKAA — Hundreds of people lined Mamane Street Saturday for the 11th annual Peace Day Parade in Honokaa.
The multi-cultural celebration featured hula halau, the Honokaa High School marching band, magic, Taiko drumming, the jazz band, bon dancers, belly dancers, circus performers and thousands of origami cranes collected for Peace Memorials in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The free, family friendly event is a tradition in the former sugarcane plantation town, and lets people of all ages give peace a chance.
The day was established through the efforts of a group of teens from the Hawaii United Federation of the Junior Young Buddhists Associations who lobbied then Gov. Linda Lingle in 2007. Hawaii is still the only state with a permanent Peace Day that coincides with the United Nations International Day of Peace.
Honokaa’s festivities joined some 300 Peace Day events around the world to spread the concepts of peace, compassion and global interdependence.