St. Paul’s largest park plays host to this annual celebration of obon, the Buddhist festival honoring the dead, which winds up at dusk with the traditional, solemnly beautiful floating-candle ceremony. But nobody will take it amiss if you just want to hang out in the park, watch Japanese kites, and sample the cuisine. Kites promote cross-cultural understanding, too. You’ll want to make time for Theater Mu’s visually intense taiko drum corps, and to take a walk through the park’s Japanese garden—which will probably be too busy that day to be truly meditative, but beautiful nonetheless. Como Park, Lexington Parkway and Horton Avenue, St. Paul.
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