Paper lanterns will drift across the lily pond at Como Park this Sunday as the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory hosts its annual Japanese Obon Festival, running from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on August 16. The event celebrates Japanese culture with food, dancing, singing, vendors, and immersive cultural exhibits, but organizers have one firm rule for anyone hoping to attend: tickets must be purchased in advance.
According to Saint Paul Parks and Recreation, tickets remain on sale ahead of Sunday, and the festival will provide a printable program, map, and vendor list for attendees. Admission is set at $8 for adults 13 and older, $5 for children 3 to 12 and seniors 65 and older, and free for children under 3, according to Como Zoo & Conservatory. Sales are limited strictly to advance online purchases or credit-card QR code scans at the gate, so anyone planning to pay cash at the door will be out of luck.
A Sacred Ritual on the Water
The night builds toward a lantern release, described by Saint Paul Parks and Recreation as a sacred tradition meant to help spirits return to the other world. Attendees who want to take part can buy customizable floating paper lanterns for $10 directly from the Saint Paul Nagasaki Sister City Committee, which supplies all the decorating materials before the lanterns are set loose on the pond at sunset, per the committee's own event listing.
The same evening features a dusk illumination ceremony in which six historic stone lanterns scattered throughout the Japanese Garden are lit alongside hundreds of floating paper lanterns crossing both the main pond and the Frog Pond, according to Explore Minnesota's event listing. Photography from the grounds, including images by Jackie Schert, has captured past years of the ritual glowing against the garden at night.
Taiko Drums, Bonsai and Bon Odori Dancing
Cultural programming spreads across the conservatory grounds throughout the day, including live taiko drumming, traditional koto zither and shakuhachi flute music, bon odori folk dancing, martial arts dojo demonstrations, ikebana flower arranging and bonsai displays, Explore Minnesota reports. The festival is co-produced by Como Park Zoo & Conservatory in partnership with the Japan America Society of Minnesota and the Saint Paul Nagasaki Sister City Committee, a collaboration that has organized the event annually.
Getting there without a car headache is built into the plan. A complimentary shuttle runs continuously on festival day between the Saint Paul Public Schools District Service Facility parking lot at 1930 Como Avenue and the conservatory grounds, with the final drop-off at 10 p.m., according to Como Zoo & Conservatory.
A Bond That Predates the Garden Itself
The festival's backdrop, the Charlotte Partridge Ordway Japanese Garden, opened in 1979 as a gift from Nagasaki, designed in the traditional Sansui style by Nagasaki landscape architect Masami Matsuda using cold-hardy Minnesota native plants, according to The Cultural Landscape Foundation. That gift built on a much older civic relationship: Saint Paul and Nagasaki established the first sister-city relationship between a U.S. municipality and an Asian city on December 7, 1955, predating the formal U.S. Sister Cities International program created under President Dwight Eisenhower, per the Japan Local Government Center.
Japanese garden design at Como Park actually stretches back even further. In 1904, park board member Dr. Rudolph Schiffman purchased tea lanterns and plants at the St. Louis World's Fair to build the park's first Japanese garden the following year, according to Como Friends. The city later cemented the sister-city tie into its map: in 2015, Saint Paul officially renamed Gateway Drive inside Como Regional Park to Nagasaki Road to mark the 60th anniversary of the partnership, according to a city bulletin distributed via GovDelivery.
The Obon Festival happens once a year, and this weekend's gathering carries forward a tradition now spanning seven decades between the two cities. Anyone hoping to walk through the gate Sunday should have tickets secured before arriving, since the conservatory's digital-only payment policy leaves no fallback option once the sun starts to set over the lily pond.
