Full Moon Festival in Okinawa

Haisai Gusuyo...Greetings Everyone,

Every year, community organizers in Okinawa hold at least one Mangetsu
Matsuri (Full-Moon Festival) that consists of a mixed arts festival all
centered around the theme of peace and demilitarization.
This year they will be hosting another festival on the beach at Henoko
Bay- the site of the highly contested military port construction on
pristine reef and breeding grounds of endangered species, as community
proclamation of their wishes for peace and disarmament. In the past,
some festivals have been held simultaneously in conjunction with peace
organizers in Korea, rallying around similar themes of peace,
demilitarization and celebration of life through the expression of the
arts. The time is now for peacemakers in Hawai`i to join in this
collective humanity aspiration for world peace and the demilitarization
of our various social systems.

Some peaceseeking local Uchinanchu (Okinawans) will be gathering this
Sunday, October 12 around 7pm in Manoa at a private residence to be
filmed sharing messages of solidarity between Hawai`i and Okinawa, and
our collective aspirations for peace and demilitarization. It is our
hope to organize a joint Full-Moon festival in O`ahu in the near
future. However this year, due to a lack of immediate time and
resources, we will be sending a "video postcard" to be shown at next
month's Mangetsu Matsuri in Henoko, Okinawa. If you would like to take
part in this effort and share a short message of solidarity with the
people of Okinawa, you are welcome to share in this impromtu filming.
Please respond to this email (dok@riseup.net) or call: pete @782-0023.

Yuimaaru/Laulima/ Solidarity,
pete

For some background, full-moon watching is an old tradition in Okinawa,
when people would gather to socialize and admire the beauty of the
full-moon during complimentary seasons. These festivals are founded on
tradition, but extended to the humbling awareness that we human beings
regardless of geography live under the same moon, a metaphor for our
interdependence and the primacy of our relations- and collective
survival. The spirit of the festival is building international
solidarity towards our collective humanity and needs for social justice
to achieve peace and true human security.