Memorial Day in Hawaii — What to Do (Lantern Floating, Punchbowl, Pearl Harbor)

Memorial Day in Hawaiʻi hits different. The Pacific is where the last great war ended; Pearl Harbor is twenty minutes from downtown Honolulu; Punchbowl Cemetery is carved into a volcanic crater above Waikiki. The names of 53,000 sailors, soldiers, airmen, and Marines killed in the Pacific are etched into walls you can walk past on a Monday morning. Then at sunset, 40,000 people gather at Ala Moana Beach Park and release 7,000 lanterns onto the ocean. If you've never seen it, this is the year. Here's the full plan — for locals, returning ohana, or visitors who happen to be on island this weekend. ## The headline event: Lantern Floating Hawaiʻi **Monday, May 26 · Ala Moana Beach Park · 6:30pm** Free. Public. Massive. The largest Memorial Day lantern floating ceremony in the world, hosted by the Shinnyo-en Hawaii Buddhist temple since 1999. You write a remembrance on a small wooden lantern — for a family member, a service member, a child, anyone — and at sunset, thousands of lanterns drift out over the Pacific together. It's non-denominational. Locals come. Tourists come. Military families come. The Governor speaks. There's chanting from monks. The sun drops. The lanterns go out. It's hard to describe to someone who hasn't been; it's also the most-photographed Memorial Day moment in the world for a reason. **[Find it on AlohaCalendar →](/memorial-day)** ### What to bring - Reusable water bottle (no public fountains, food trucks are pricey) - A folding chair or beach blanket - Sunscreen (sun's still strong at 4pm setup) - Sturdy walking shoes — sand walking + grass ### Parking **Don't try to park on-site.** Ala Moana parking fills by 2pm. Either: - Park at Ala Moana Center (free up to 4 hours) and walk over - Park near Magic Island and walk along the bike path - TheBus #20 runs straight from Waikiki for $3 round-trip - Biki bikeshare drops you 200 yards from the lawn ### Best viewing spots - Near the central altar (arrive by 3pm) - The south end of Magic Island peninsula (less crowded, similar view of the lantern release) - The Waikiki side of the park (sunset behind the lanterns is photo gold) --- ## National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl) **Memorial Day Service · 8:30am · 2177 Puowaina Drive** Punchbowl is a former volcanic crater, now home to 53,000+ graves of American service members from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and beyond. Memorial Day morning is the one day a year there's a public ceremony — the Governor, military leadership, and surviving family members lay wreaths at the top of the cemetery's central staircase. The ceremony itself runs ~90 minutes. Even if you skip the service, the cemetery is open to the public 7 days a week — it's worth a quiet hour any time you're in Honolulu. **Honest visitor notes:** - Parking gets tight by 7am. Carpool or take a rideshare. - Dress code is respectful — long pants / no swimwear / leave the leis for the headstones. - The view from the top of the cemetery is one of the best panoramas of Honolulu. Sunrise is unreal. - Free. --- ## Pearl Harbor **USS Arizona Memorial · Open daily** The Arizona herself still leaks oil — "the tears of the Arizona," as locals call it. 1,177 sailors and Marines went down with the ship on December 7, 1941; over 900 are still aboard, entombed. The visitor center is free; the boat ride to the memorial itself is also free but requires a timed reservation through Recreation.gov. Memorial Day weekend: book your slot *now* — Friday afternoon slots are usually gone by Saturday. The adjacent **Battleship Missouri** is where the war officially ended (the surrender documents were signed on her deck). Tickets are paid ($35 adults), but the contrast — start at Arizona where the war began, end at Missouri where it ended — is the most powerful single hour of history I've seen anywhere. --- ## Beyond Oʻahu ### Maui - **Maui Veterans Memorial** in Kahului holds a Memorial Day service - The State Veterans Cemetery in Makawao is open for visits ### Big Island - **West Hawaiʻi Veterans Cemetery** in Kona - The **Pacific Tsunami Museum** in Hilo isn't Memorial Day specific but ties into Pacific war history ### Kauaʻi - The Kauai Veterans Cemetery in Hanapēpē is small but well-kept; locals gather Monday morning --- ## What else is happening this weekend Memorial Day in Hawaii is also a 3-day weekend with concerts, festivals, food, free events. We've curated everything happening Friday May 23 through Tuesday May 26 here: **[See every Memorial Day weekend event in Hawaii →](/memorial-day)** Highlights this year include the **Punchbowl Music Festival** (April through May concert series at the National Cemetery), **Hawaiʻi Symphony's Memorial concert**, plus weekly markets, surf comps, and the usual island event slate. --- ## A small ask If you're a local — bring someone who's never been to Lantern Floating. Visiting family, mainland friends, anyone. It's the kind of evening that changes how people understand Hawaiʻi. If you're visiting — and most of our digest readers are some mix of both — give yourself enough time to do this right. Land Friday, get to Punchbowl Monday morning, lantern floating Monday evening. You'll fly home different. --- **Mahalo. — John, AlohaCalendar** Subscribe to the weekly Hawaiʻi events email at the bottom of the page if you want one curated list every Friday morning. No spam.