Annual Events

Okinawa Tomono Kai of Ohio Spring Celebration

Celebrates the New Year and the coming of spring.

·         Includes a pot luck luncheon

·         A short business meeting

·         Performances of traditional and contemporary dances

·         Columbus, Ohio,  April 16, 2011

Asian Festival

·         Held at Franklin Park Columbus, Ohio

·         Memorial Day weekend

·         Our Kai members routinely perform at this festival.

       http://asian-festival.org/

Okinawa Tomono Kai of Ohio Picnic and Eisa

·         Includes a pot luck luncheon

·         A short business meeting

·         Honor the spirits of our ancestors with music and dancing.

·         High Banks Park, Columbus, Ohio,  July 17^th  Noon to 5 PM.

Eisa (エイサー, Eisaa) is a form of folk dance to the people of the Ryukyu Islands.  Eisa performances are concentrated around lunar  mid-July. This is a centuries-long tradition, to mark the end of the Obon Festival.

Obon (お盆^?) or just Bon (盆) is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the departed spirits of one's ancestors.  This Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves, and then the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the household altars.  It has been celebrated in Okinawa for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori.