{"id":1427,"date":"2022-08-13T18:28:23","date_gmt":"2022-08-14T02:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/?p=1427"},"modified":"2022-08-14T05:44:25","modified_gmt":"2022-08-14T13:44:25","slug":"a-great-evening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/?p=1427","title":{"rendered":"A Great Evening!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"521\" src=\"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/PXL_20220810_020550247.MP_-1024x521.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1428\" srcset=\"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/PXL_20220810_020550247.MP_-1024x521.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/PXL_20220810_020550247.MP_-300x153.jpg 300w, https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/PXL_20220810_020550247.MP_-768x391.jpg 768w, https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/PXL_20220810_020550247.MP_-1536x781.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/PXL_20220810_020550247.MP_-2048x1042.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/PXL_20220810_020550247.MP_-500x254.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Japanese-style Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavilion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A record-breaking crowd of about 300 people attended the <strong>Honouring Peace event on 9 August<\/strong>, to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima &amp; Nagasaki. The annual event was held for the first time at the new Japanese-style pavilion in Esquimalt Gorge Park at the site of the original Japanese teahouse destroyed by vandalism in 1942.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elder Bear Sam opened with a healing prayer in the Lekwungun language, explaining the significance of the headdress that had originally been a war bonnet, gifted to his father and then to him. MLA Mitzi Dean brought a message of support and encouragement from Premier Horgan. Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins began by paying tribute to the late Mayor of Oak Bay, Nils Jensen, for his preparatory role leading to this day. Mayor Desjardins read a message sent by the Mayor of Hiroshima to the Honouring Peace event, noting the inspiring progress made recently by the 2021 Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube alignright wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Taiko drumming\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lvPsCB1DqW0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>Taiko drummers 9 August 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Speakers included Dr Dillon Takata, descended from the owners of the original teahouse, and Tsugio Kurushima of the Nikkei Society, each expressing the horror of nuclear war, including the moving poem \u201cChildren of the A-Bomb\u201d read by Margaret Krawciw. Their comments were interspersed with short performances by the Furusato dancers, Arbutus Singers, and Taiko drummers. In the words of one participant, \u201cit was a good honouring.\u201d It was also a striking reminder of the need for work at every level to painstakingly build the relationships necessary for peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/PXL_20220810_032022109.MP_-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1429\" srcset=\"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/PXL_20220810_032022109.MP_-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/PXL_20220810_032022109.MP_-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/PXL_20220810_032022109.MP_-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/PXL_20220810_032022109.MP_-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/PXL_20220810_032022109.MP_-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/PXL_20220810_032022109.MP_-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\">Ceremonial tree planting<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the program, Mayor Desjardins was assisted by several others in the ceremonial tree planting of a gingko sapling that had been nurtured in Oak Bay from seeds of a Hiroshima tree that had survived the blast. The evening ended with floating the lanterns that had been decorated by participants earlier in the evening, who then set them in the reflective pools surrounding the new Pavilion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The organizing team for the event was a first-time coalition of partners: Dr Jonathan Down (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Canada); Megumi Saunders and Tsugio Kurushima (Victoria Nikkei Society); Sheila Flood (Victoria Multifaith Society); Sharon Welsh (Greater Victoria Peace School); and Patrick Slobodian (Esquimalt Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed Assembly).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A record-breaking crowd of about 300 people attended the Honouring Peace event on 9 August, to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima &amp; Nagasaki. The annual event was held for the first time at the new Japanese-style &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/?p=1427\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,17,19,22,18,21],"class_list":["post-1427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-esquimalt-mayor-barb-desjardins","tag-hiroshima-nagasaki","tag-japanese-community","tag-nuclear-war-treaty","tag-peace-event","tag-taiko-drummers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1427"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1431,"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427\/revisions\/1431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}