| General Info | Scrips | Sponsors | Opportunity Drawing | Silent Auction | Volunteers | Donors |
General Info
The 2025 Venice Hongwanji Buddhist Temple Obon Festival will be held on July 19-20 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, andagi (Okinawa dango), hot dogs, chili, and shave ice.
Our Obon Festival is open to the public.
Scrips
At this year’s VHBT Obon festival, all food and game booths will only accept tickets (scrip) for payment. Each ticket is worth $1. Skip the line at Obon and pre-order your scrip! Your scrip will be waiting for you at the “will call” line at the ticket (scrip) booth.
To pre-order scrip online, visit the Givebutter site at givebutter.com/VHBT205obonscrip. Pre-Sale ends July 17. No refunds on scrips.
Obon Sponsors
Venice Hongwanji Buddhist Temple (VHBT) gratefully thanks and acknowledges SPONSORS of our 2025 Obon Commemoration. To become an Obon sponsor, please visit https://givebutter.com/VHBTObonSponsor2025 or complete the form HERE. Thank you to our Sangha and community for your generous support!.
- In Memory of Dino & Colleen Belli and Chikao & Mary Kujubu
- In Memory of Allegreta Behar Blau
- In Memory of Shirley Braunstein
- In Memory of Shirley Braunstein
- In Memory of Janet Mitsui Brown
- In Memory of Wayne Eguchi
- In Memory of Wayne Eguchi
- In Memory of Ray Enomoto
- In Memory of Arlene Hamashita
- In Memory of Charlie and Nancy Higashi
- In Memory of Minoru & Betty M Hisashima and Butch & Reva Hisashima
- In Memory of Toru & Mie Ino
- In Memory of Shigeo Kita
- In Memory of Kho & Minako Iseda
- In Memory of Kho & Minako Iseda, Dean Matsubayashi
- In Memory of Rikio Ishikawa
- In Memory of Hiroshi & Kazuko Kadomatsu
- In Memory of Dean Matsubayashi
- In Memory of Dean Matsubayashi
- In Memory of Reverend Sentoku Sangoro & Mrs. Emily Hideko Uyeda Mayeda, and George Ta-Min & Tsui Lin Chan Ching
- In Memory of Tsuyako Miyashiro
- In Memory of Tsutomu and Fumi Mochizuki
- In Memory of Nancy Nakagiri
- In Memory of Setsuji & Masuyo Nakao
- In Memory of Nobuo Frank Nishina
- In Memory of Tadao & Fusae Nishina, Ronald Nishina and Naomi Nishina
- In Memory of Gram & Lillian Noriyuki
- In Memory of our Parents
- In Memory of Hitoshi & Kay Shimizu
- In Memory of Katsusuke, Matsuko & Keith Shirasawa
- In Memory of Ruth Toshiko Kodama Horibe
- In Memory of Kiyoshi & Jean Waki
- In Memory of Tozo, Tsuneko & Kuniye Yahata
- In Memory of Paul Yamada, Kazu Fujioka, Tozo & Tsuneko Yahata , Kuniye Yahata
- In Memory of Hirosuke Yamadera & Grandmother Yamadera
- Mike & Laurie Amano
- The Gee Family
- Eugene & Akemi Hayashibara, DDS
- Eugene & Phyllis Hayashibara
- Milnes & Noriko Kurashige
- Albert & Pauline Morita
- John & Valda Palacios Family
- Kiyoe Suzuki
- Randy & Mari Tamura
- Angel Maid Bakery
Odori Dancing
Bon Odori practices start on Wednesday, June 25th at 7:00 PM. Additional dates are Mon June 30, Wed July 2, Mon July 7, Wed July 9, Mon July 14.
We are bringing back many of our favorites so it is easier to pick up the moves again:
So, start stretching and get ready to dance and come to practice so you can get your popsicle too!
Opportunity Drawing
Our Opportunity Drawing offers the chance to win the Grand Prize of $1000 cash, 2nd prize of $500, and 3rd prize of $300 in Southwest Airlines Gift Cards! 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 20, 2025, 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.
Silent Auction
Our 10th annual silent auction is now live for taking bids at www.32auctions.com/vhbtobon2025
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.
Volunteers
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! Here are links to the various areas for volunteering on Signup Genius:
Odori Street Crew, Setup, Cleanup & Dishwashing
Salad & Sushi, Hot Dog & Andagi
Silent Auction, Marketplace & Raffle
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.
The Signup Genius website is 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.