• [PHOTO GALLERY] 20th annual Shinnyo-En lantern floating ceremony

Some 7,000 candlelit lanterns illuminated the waters of Ala Moana Beach Park on Monday during the 20th annual Lantern Floating Hawaii ceremony.

The visually stunning Memorial Day event drew tens of thousands of people, many of whom honored the memory of a relative, friend or fallen military member by launching a floating lantern into the sea under the fading light of day.

Many in the crowd arrived early in the day, staking out a place to watch the spectacle. The free premade floats and lanterns were distributed nearly four hours before the launch was to begin.

Audra Amian said she was compelled to attend after her father, her husband’s father and his best friend all died in the last six months.

“I thought about coming out ever since I lost my mom 11 years ago,” the Kaneohe woman said. “This year we decided we needed to do it. It’s been a rough six months, and we’re hoping for a little closure.”

Tina Rameriz and her daughter, Lecia, who was holding her baby daughter, Lyla, also said they felt compelled to be there.

Tina’s husband and Lecia’s father, Ramil Rameriz, 47, a Honolulu wastewater inspector, died just over six months ago after his lymphoma, previously believed to be dormant, made a comeback and struck him down in a matter of a few weeks.

“He knew his daughter was pregnant, and he was excited to be a grandfather. But he never got to hold her,” Tina Rameriz said.

Having watched the ceremony on TV in the past, Rameriz said she was anticipating being overcome with grief — something she had to feel.

“I’m hoping it’ll make our days a little easier,” she said.

Gary and Ellen Rudholm flew to Honolulu from their home in San Jose, Calif., with Ellen’s cousin Liberty Gonzales specifically to see the lantern ceremony.

Ellen Rudholm, 54, who grew up in Kalihi, said the lantern event is one of the most beautiful things she’s ever seen in the islands, and she persuaded her husband to honor their parents.

Pausing to speak to a reporter before the event, Gonzales and the Rudholms each held in their arms a floating lantern with the names of their parents inscribed on them.

“We didn’t want to miss it,” Rudholm said of the ceremony.

New Yorker Meredith McIntyre and her husband, Marine Capt. Brendan McIntyre, came out to honor friends and Air Force comrades of her brother-in-law, Greg Feberg.

Master Sgt. Christopher Rasuso and Staff Sgt. Dashan Briggs died in a helicopter crash in Iraq in March. Like Feberg, they were reservists who were deployed away from their jobs with the New York City Fire Department.

“Friends told us we had to be here,” Meredith McIntyre said.

Themed “Resonance,” the annual ceremony aims to create a “collective experience of warmth, compassion and understanding,” with people either honoring the memory of a loved one or using the event “as a symbolic, collective vow to work toward a harmonious and peaceful future.”

Joining in the official lighting of the Light of Harmony on Monday were Gov. David Ige and Roy Amemiya, Honolulu managing director.

The livestreamed and televised ceremony is presented each year by Shinnyo-en and its affiliated Hawaii nonprofit known as Na Lei Aloha Foundation. It was led by Shinso Ito, leader of Shinnyo-en, a Buddhist denomination that was started after World War II and now has more than 1 million followers across the globe.

The group, which runs similar events around the world, established its first floating lantern ceremony in Hawaii on Memorial Day 1999. For the first three years, it was held at Keehi Lagoon. In 2002 the ceremony was moved down the beach to the Magic Island end of Ala Moana Beach, where it has been held ever since.

While there is no cost to participate, donations received prior to the event were used to support the ceremony, organizers said, while those collected Monday were to be given to the city for the care and maintenance of Ala Moana Regional Park.

Organizers said every effort was being made to retrieve all the lanterns from the water for later use, with personal remembrances and prayers removed and handled in a spiritually respectful way.