Toro Nagashi Lantern Ceremony

The Japanese Art Foundation is proud to welcome you to the inaugural Toro Nagashi lantern ceremony, in Jackson Park’s Garden of the Phoenix. We hope to invite you to join us in this meaningful ceremony to process loss or “the loss of our loved ones” and “to strengthen” or thereby strengthen our bonds as a community. The ceremony of Toro Nagashi (literally, “floating lanterns”) is a Buddhist tradition held to celebrate the end of Obon season. Toro Nagashi can be a smaller family affair to remember lost family members or a much bigger event to memorialize those who have been lost to natural disasters, war, and other causes. Toro Nagashi officially begins at the moment the ancestors commence their return to the spirit world. Communities come together to guide the spirits down to the sea using traditional candle-lit lanterns (toro). The Toro Nagashi ceremony sends off a spirit to the other world, with the lanterns visually representing the spirit’s send-off to the other world. Lanterns will be floated in the waters of the Garden of the Phoenix pond, and can be placed throughout the garden, Yoko Ono’s SKYLANDING, and along the Columbia River Basin as guests choose.

RSVP & Purchase Your Lantern Here→