Celebrations

Wedding
Newlyweds Angeli Castillo and Stephen Callo take part in the Filipino money dance during their wedding reception on July 28, 2007. During the traditional dance, guests offer the bride and groom money as a symbol of future prosperity and abundance.

Bon Dance
Even torrential rains couldn’t slow the Manoa Koganji Temple Bon Dance on Aug. 4. The dance, which is part of a larger Japanese Buddhist festival, honors the departed spirits of one’s ancestors.

Chinese New year

Father and son Tom and Kyle Ching join in New Year festivities in Chinatown while Tom’s wife, Amy, extends an offering to the dragon dancers for good luck. This most important of all traditional Chinese holidays begins with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. This coming New Year will be the Chinese year 4706.

Punahou Carnival

UH freshman Elijah Isaac, 18, enjoys the carnival revelry while representing his hometown of Waimanalo with its ZIP code painted on his cheek. On the first Friday and Saturday of every February, Punahou School hosts its annual carnival to benefit the financial aid program and student activities.

High School Reunion

Kalani High School class of 1977 alumni, clockwise from bottom, June Shimabuko, Janice Kondo, Lisa Hiraoka, Arlyne Morikawa and Dorin Yamauchi pose for raucous reunion photos at the Ala Moana Hotel.

Memorial

Stephanie Y. Kim passed away on June 4, 2007, while traveling in Mexico on a field survey for her doctoral dissertation at the University of California, Berkeley. Kim had been planning on returning to the Islands in two weeks. Previously she had been a program director at Hui Malama O ke Kai in Waimanalo. Here, some of her close friends offer a quiet homage to her life at one of her favorite surf spots at Diamond Head early in the morning.

New Year’s Eve

Karly Lyman and 1-year-old son Kamiela ring in the New Year away from dad David Lyman, a soldier from Schofield Barracks who has been stationed in Iraq since August 2006.

Baby Kuanalu Cahill celebrates his first year of life at a party on April 7, with the support of his mother, Summer Partlon, and father, Ani Cahill. Due to high infant mortality in ancient times, a baby’s first year was considered a real achievement, to be commemorated with lots of food and music, and the baby luau tradition continues today.

Fourth of July

Nine-year-old John Lee celebrates America’s independence with a fireworks display of his own at Ala Moana Beach Park.

Graduation

Karen Duldulao, of Waipahu, is up to her neck in happiness after graduating from Hawaii Pacific University with a Bachelor of Science degree in premedical studies on Jan. 10.