On the evening of Memorial Day, over 40,000 people line the beach of Oahu's south shore to participate in the Lantern Floating. A call produced on a conch shell starts the ceremony, which also features taiko drummers and chanting. The Lantern Floating is a ritual that shows gratitude and connects participants to their ancestors, offering warm thoughts and prayers as they lay paper lanterns housing lights or candles onto the water at the signalling sound of the ringing of a "pure" bell. Reverent and beautiful, participants wear and scatter flower petals, make offerings, and pour their hopes into the wooden "Ka Lei Moana": the main six lanterns, crafted like delicate boats on the water.