Feast of Lanterns

A friend invited us to this event. The first year we thought, «how quaint!»
Then we met a Chinese woman who was very upset in the crowd. She shared her family history. It is stunningly poignant and terribly sad. We did not understand how offensive this event was to her. We left the evening feeling very ashamed we even attended.
The Last Home Town in America has a very sketchy past on human rights violations and worse.
It’s too bad. It’s also magnificently beautiful.
We were asked to go again this year. We cordially declined.
This year we have honored the remarkable legacy of the Chinese with dignity.
This has been our celebration of lamp lighting. Education matters.
Monterey excavation reveals Chinese fishing village — SFGate
’ news ’ article ’ Montere…
Mobile-​friendly — Nov 5, 2010 — … once-​thriving Chinese fishing village in Pacific Grove that was destroyed in a mysterious fire in 1906.

This is an amazing weeklong event that has been celebrated over 100 years in Pacific Grove. Conceptual artists, take note; It is completely made up! Begun as the closing ceremonies to the annual summer Chautauqua lectures, some think as early as the 1890’s. No one is positively sure when it started but the official year is now 1905.
Well worth bringing the kids to see this day long pageant and pet parade as well as chicken dinner and many other events including Wednesday which is cake cutting day and kids get to draw on the sidewalks outside Chautauqua Hall. All free! Don’t miss the great fireworks including Chinese fireworks!
Update in response to the very poor review by AJ:
Feast of Lanterns has very little to do with any real Chinese history. It is a faux Chinese pageant which is based on an English play. It has been offensive to some Asian people who don’t understand that it started as a celebration of other cultures and was an American interpretation of the Japanese Obon festival circa 1900, in the 1920’s it turned into a bathing beauty contest, was not celebrated during WWII, then re-​emerged as a faux Chinese American festival, probably due to anti-​Japanese sentiment. What has remained are small vestiges of the original Obon with lanterns being lit down at the beach as well as the boat parade. It is a celebration, like many in America which has changed with the times and has only traces of actual history.
Pacific Grove had the longest active Chinese fishing community on the west coast. Feast of Lanterns was very Japanese oriented when the Chinese lived there. As far as their involvement, it was probably limited to the lighted boat parade, one of the few consistent traditions of the event. As far as the history of the actual Chinese families that lived at the village, it was a fairly peaceful relationship until the end when several entities were interested in the land. Not the local residents, but rather developers and Stanford University.
I do agree, this event should have some basis in actual Asian history, but it has become it’s own unique event. To that end, it is hard to be offended by something that has no roots in any particular culture but it’s own, and yet, started because of a very open-​minded interest in other cultures circa 1900.