{"id":34078,"date":"2025-08-06T23:55:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T22:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=34078"},"modified":"2025-08-06T23:55:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T22:55:37","slug":"hiroshima-lantern-ceremony-in-abingdon-80-years-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=34078","title":{"rendered":"Hiroshima Lantern Ceremony in Abingdon \u2013 80 Years On"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag25\/2025080626.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nOn the evening of Wednesday 6th August, people gathered by the River Thames in Abingdon to mark the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The event honoured the many thousands who died, those who gave their lives helping others, and all people currently living in places of conflict.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag25\/2025080603.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThe Mayor of Abingdon-on-Thames, Councillor Rawda Jehanli, gave a moving speech in St Ethelwold\u2019s Garden. Having visited Hiroshima herself, she spoke vividly about the exhibits in the Peace Museum, and urged those present to keep believing that peace is possible \u2013 even when it feels so far out of reach.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag25\/2025080627.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nPoems were read aloud, followed by a shared silence of remembrance. Roger Baker then led a community affirmation of peace.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag25\/2025080616.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nLanterns \u2014 painted by children in Hiroshima \u2014 were carried down to St Helen&#8217;s Wharf.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag25\/2025080615.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThey were lit.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag25\/2025080617.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nAnd floated on the River Thames.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag25\/2025080620.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nTheir light served as a reminder of our shared humanity \u2014 and how fortunate we are to live in peace.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag25\/2025080625.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nAt the end of the evening, the lanterns were retrieved by canoe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the evening of Wednesday 6th August, people gathered by the River Thames in Abingdon to mark the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The event honoured the many thousands who died, those who gave their lives helping others, and all people currently living in places of conflict. The Mayor of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-peace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}