This past Saturday we went to the Victoria Park Lantern Festival; we made lanterns in the afternoon and then went back in the evening for the festivities!
Victoria Park Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival is a project of the Friends of Victoria Park and has been going on for over a decade. The lanterns are handmade and new ones are made in public lantern-building workshops in the weeks leading up to the event. We didn't participate in any of the main lantern-building workshops, but we did stop by the last minute workshop on Saturday afternoon to make some lanterns of our own. The only types of lanterns that you can make in the week before the event are glass lanterns because they’re quick and easy.
We arrived just after 3 pm to make sure that we had a chance to build lanterns before the supplies ran out. All you need to make a glass lantern is a glass jar, glue (mixed with water), and colourful tissue paper. You need to
We arrived just after 3 pm to make sure that we had a chance to build lanterns before the supplies ran out. All you need to make a glass lantern is a glass jar, glue (mixed with water), and colourful tissue paper. You need to
- Cover the jar in glue
- Rip up tissue paper
- Stick tissue paper to glass jar, adding more glue as required
- And finish it off with another layer of glue
A work in progress
It was very straightforward, but kind of messy. And it took more time than expected for our lanterns to dry. The main problem was that we covered them in too much glue, plus Elizabeth covered the bottom of hers with tissue paper, trapping the glue. Tip from the top: don’t do that.
After making our lanterns, clever little bamboo handles were added by one of the volunteers. We noticed afterwards that tea lights were also glued to the bottom of the jars. The concept was to bring back your lantern that night and it would be lit by a volunteer for the festivities.
After making our lanterns, clever little bamboo handles were added by one of the volunteers. We noticed afterwards that tea lights were also glued to the bottom of the jars. The concept was to bring back your lantern that night and it would be lit by a volunteer for the festivities.
We then spent a few minutes looking at the other community booths set up in the area. In addition, there were other workshops going on all day including yoga, storytelling, tango dancing, tai chi and lion dancing, plus there was live music all afternoon.
We didn’t stick around long, but we made our way back to Victoria Park around 9 pm to take in the evening’s celebrations. We made our way through the crowd, past the belly dancers onstage, around the baseball diamond, and up onto the hill to get a good vantage point for the fire (light) dancing show. On our way there, we stopped to take a look at some of the 500 glass lanterns that filled up the buried stream of Bennett’s Brook, as well as the larger handmade lanterns hanging above them.
Unfortunately due to a recent fire ban, the lanterns couldn’t be lit with the usual tea lights, and had to be lit up by glow sticks. The effect wasn’t ideal, but they did what they could, and the lanterns still looked great.
We didn’t stick around long, but we made our way back to Victoria Park around 9 pm to take in the evening’s celebrations. We made our way through the crowd, past the belly dancers onstage, around the baseball diamond, and up onto the hill to get a good vantage point for the fire (light) dancing show. On our way there, we stopped to take a look at some of the 500 glass lanterns that filled up the buried stream of Bennett’s Brook, as well as the larger handmade lanterns hanging above them.
Unfortunately due to a recent fire ban, the lanterns couldn’t be lit with the usual tea lights, and had to be lit up by glow sticks. The effect wasn’t ideal, but they did what they could, and the lanterns still looked great.
We found a spot near the top of the hill to watch the fire (light) show. First, there was a parade of lanterns through the crowd, and then performers took to the baseball field and completed some interesting choreography using lit up juggling clubs, hula hoops, shoes, light sabers, and other things that we don’t know the names of. From where we were standing, we couldn't even see the performers themselves, only the lit up objects that they were waving around.
The show was entertaining and we realized afterwards that we forgot to get our lanterns “lit” (by a glow stick) while we were at the festival. So after we walked home, we lit them ourselves (with real fire).
We had a fun day and now have a couple more lanterns to sit next to our Moroccan lamps. Here are a few more pictures from Saturday:
