Night Lights

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care, and you’re so full of Christmas it is too much to bear….

At this stage of the holiday season, everybody is giddy and anxious about Santa’s big day. We’ve planned, shopped, wrapped, baked, visited, carolled and entertained ourselves to exhaustion, and we still have a week to go before our eager elves have their way with the gifts under the tree. A distraction, if even for a night, would do us all good. The Winter Solstice Lantern Festival, happening on December 21, is just what Mrs. Claus would order if she were running the show.

Now in its sixteenth year, Vancouver’s unique Winter Solstice Lantern Festival is a community-wide celebration of the end of darkness on the longest night of the year. Organized by the Secret Lantern Society, this year’s Lantern Festival will encompass four different Vancouver neighbourhoods: the East Side, Yaletown, Granville Island, Chinatown/Strathcona. Happening simultaneously, the festivals in each community have their own special flare, giving us plenty of choice.

At the risk of spoiling the surprise for festival-goers, we’ll give you a taste of what’s in store for next Monday night. In Yaletown, the festival starts with three separate processions of local residents carrying homemade lanterns and moving to the beat of West African drums. Revellers will converge at the Roundhouse Community Centre, to be welcomed by a blazing performance by Vancouver’s Fire Artists. Inside the Roundhouse, your wee ones will enjoy the Labyrinth of Light, a meditative path lit by over 700 pure beeswax candles.

Strathconans will start on a fiery parade of their own at the local community centre and then meander in the dark to the tranquil setting of the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden and Park. There, the landscape will be illuminated by some of the city’s most beautiful lanterns, created by bona fide lantern artists and budding luminaries whose works are featured in the Children’s Lantern Courtyard. 

On Granville Island, multiple lantern processions will be led by brightly costumed English molly dancers to Ron Basford Park where a sensational fire sculpture and fire performances light the night. Your children will delight in the dancing, storytelling and puppetry which awaits them when festival continues in the False Creek Community Centre.

Last but not least, the intimate celebration on Vancouver’s East Side starts with live musical performances in the warmth of three Grandview area homes. Following these short concerts, neighbours will stroll together by candlelight to the Britannia Community Centre for music, bonfire and hot chocolate. What could be better on a cold winter’s night?

Whether you’re celebrating the end of darkness or looking for a distraction from the gift of gift giving, lighten up! 

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