2024 VHBT Obon

The 2024 Venice Hongwanji Buddhist Temple Obon Festival will be held on July 20-21 from 3PM to 9PM. We invite you all to join us in person for some delicious food, fun games, our opportunity drawing, silent auction, and of course Bon Odori (dancing), which will run from 7:00PM-8:30PM both days.

We are returning to our traditional food offerings of chicken teriyaki, fried wonton, udon, andagi (Okinawa dango), sushi, Chinese chicken salad, hot dogs, chili, and shave ice.

Our Obon Festival is open to the public.

Venice Hongwanji Buddhist Temple (VHBT) gratefully thanks and acknowledges SPONSORS of our 2023 Obon Commemoration. To become an Obon sponsor, please visit https://givebutter.com/VHBTObonSponsor2024 or complete the form HERE. Thank you to our Sangha and community for your generous support!.

Bon Odori practices start on Wednesday, June 28th at 7:00 PM. Additional dates are June 30th, July 3th, July 5th, and July 10th. We are bringing back many of our favorites so it is easier to pick up the moves again:

Kangi-e, Honen Bon Uta (towel dance), Hibari Ondo (fan dance), Gassho Ondo, Shinran Ondo, Ei Ja Nai Ka, a new kachi kachi dance, and others!

So, start stretching and get ready to dance and come to practice so you can get your popsicle too!

Our Opportunity Drawing offers the chance to win the Grand Prize of $1000 cash, 2nd prize of $500, and 3rd prize of an Apple iPad. In addition, through the generosity of local merchants and Temple members, a number of other prizes will be available.

The Drawing will be held on Sunday, July 21, 2024, at 8:00PM. Winners need not be present and will be notified by e-mail or phone.

Email us at obon@vhbt.org or call us at (310) 391-4351 for more information.

Our 10th annual silent auction is now live for taking bids at www.32auctions.com/vhbtobon2024

Featured items include LA Dodgers Tickets, a Lenovo laptop, handmade quilts, LeSportsac bags, restaurant gift cards, Gift Baskets and much more.

You may bid online and you may also bid in person where you can see some of the items yourself.

But why wait? The more bidding that happens, the more exciting the auction is. Online bidding is easy, you just need to sign up for a 32auctions account (free)- they will walk you through it. If you have an account from last time, you may use the same one.

Questions? Contact Aya Masada at (310) 418-1453 or Tommy Nakagiri at (310) 892-4686.

We have started taking signups to help us stage our Obon Festival! Obon requires a lot of resources, so we can use all the help we can get! On the Signup Genius website, you may click on the various tabs and links to help us in the food or game booths during the festival, the raffle, silent auction and marketplace, general ground support, and also at the various prep sessions in the week leading up to the Obon.

It takes a village, and we are asking everyone who is able to take a few hours to consider helping us in any way you can. We can promise that everyone will have a fun time while albeit working hard.

To sign up, please go to the Signup Genius website. Signup Genius is pretty easy to use. If you have questions or prefer to email us to sign up, email vhbtlive@gmail.com or call 310-391-4351 to sign up- we’ll make it as easy as possible.