The Hanamatsuri we celebrate at temple could be considered
“private”—not that we don’t welcome all seekers, but that the service isn’t an
event we advertise beyond our website and newsletter calendar—
—compared to what the community knows as our Hanamatsuri festival, which we advertise for months
in advance in every available format---newspapers, magazines, fliers, websites,
and online listings. Is the public
welcome? Gosh yes—we’re throwing a
birthday festival party and we want
you to come!
And a few thousand people, more or less, will show up for
either or both days of our Hanamatsuri Festival. About the time the flyers arrive in some
10,000 newspapers delivered to strategically selected zip codes, the temple
phone starts ringing and the web site takes its hits. When is the talk on Buddhism? What hours is the photo exhibit open? Does the tea ceremony require tickets? How much for admission? Where do we park? How do I get there?
Many of our sister Shin Buddhist temples serve a
Japanese-American population, and their festival more closely resembles the
local matsuri in Japan, where they
hold and attend their own celebration.
While we do not have the luxury of a guaranteed population base to draw
on, we do have the opportunity to invite the larger community to share our
celebration with us, eat our hand-made food, buy our crafts, visit our plant
booth (especially popular at Hanamatsuri—our plumeria are famous for quality,
and this is their planting season), buy produce from our mini farmer market…
…and yes, attend a talk on Buddhism, taught by one of our sensei (teachers), watch classical and
folk dance performances, take in the photo exhibit, experience the Japanese Tea
Ceremony, and feel the taiko drumming.
It is a testament to the interest and orientation of our
community that the “introduction to Buddhism” talks are usually full.
Despite the vagaries of spring weather (even in North San Diego County),
where we’ve frozen, baked, burned, and been rained on, the community comes out
in curiosity, in support, in serious craving for strawberry shortcake—a bow
here to the remaining small farms who help us with fresh strawberries in
April!—and we celebrate the birth of the Buddha together.
We’re ready for you.
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