Floating Lantern Celebration
1998, 2002, 2012-2017
The Floating Lantern Celebration took place many times on the last Sunday of September, usually coinciding with B.C. Rivers Day. Lanterns were created with many groups and drop-in sessions in Enderby and Splatsin. They were brought to Belvedere Park by the Shuswap River as evening approached, and at night fall people lined up along the path down to the water where they were lit and placed one by one in the river. People in canoes and kayaks gently nudged the lit lanterns into the current, and travelled with them past the bridge and further until they were out of sight.
After launching their lanterns people walked along the path to the bridge and tried to spot their own as they floated past. The sound of Ska7tis drummers accompanied the lanterns from the platform above the launching spot.
After a few years of being an anticipated annual event, with people coming from many communities, the Floating Lantern Festival no longer takes place every year. This is due to environmental concerns and conditions. Summers of intense forest fires have made people nervous of the lit lanterns; lower than normal water levels have made it difficult for the boats to keep the lanterns from floating out of the main current to the water’s edge, as well as to collect them from the water upon completion.
2012 PARTICIPANTS - see listed below (click to enlarge)
Background
The first Floating Lantern Ceremony was one of the many outreach events put on by the Steering Committee of the Community Play Project, gathering interest and momentum as we got closer to the time to work on the play “Not the Way I Heard It” (1998).
Free lantern workshops were held in many different places in both Splatsin and Enderby. When people gathered with their lanterns for the ceremony it was a large group of people that had never done anything together before, particularly across the divide between “Town” and Reserve. Perhaps it was because an outdoor event, and nobody’s building to enter, there were no barriers to who felt welcome. Perhaps it was because Ska7tis Drum group were by the river from the afternoon on, getting ready for the event - the first time the big drum had been heard in Enderby.
Elder Lena Bell said a prayer for the river in Secwepemtsin, which many had never heard before, and councillor Grant Gerlib spoke some words in appreciation of the river. It was a beautiful and groundbreaking event.
Every Lantern Float since has been a celebration of the river, but also a commemoration of this first Floating Lantern Ceremony in September 1998.
Lantern Float 2012
Calendario Floating Lantern Celebration
September 30, 2012
This was an extra special event, with the appearance of the Bird Stilt Chorus.
Before nightfall people gathered near the Info Centre to wait for the time of lighting and launching. Lanterns were everywhere on the lawn; more were made quickly onsite. People wandered around looking at the colourful display.
At around 6:40, a Great Blue Heron strode across the field near the info centre. Then, a small choir began to call the other birds. First was a Red-tailed Hawk, then a Hairy Woodpecker, and a Mourning Dove. The voices became a chorus of birdsong. Next entered a goldfinch, a swallow, a chickadee, and a Red-winged blackbird, who circled quickly. Then the robin killdeer and kingfisher arrived. The Hawk frightened them away, leaving room for a gaggle of tiny beetles, who were then chased away by the swallow.
The birds returned in various formations and finally left towards the south, led by a tiny Canada Goose.
The night was clear, and the moon one day past full rose in the sky as night fell.
At nightfall, people carried lanterns down the path in a snaky line. Along the path lamplighters were ready to light each candle. The lanterns were placed in the water at the edge of the river, and they floated with the current towards the bridge. The sound of Skat7tis handdrummers accompanied them, with a song from Popoleko from across the bridge in conversation. After launching their lanterns the people walked along the path to the bridge where they watched as at least two hundred lanterns, of varying size, colour and shape, floating under the bridge and out of sight.
A group of canoes, kayaks, a flat-bottomed boat and a paddleboard helped nudge the lanterns into the current and made sure they didn’t stray; once around the bend the canoeists and kayakers caught the lanterns and loaded them into the flat-bottomed boat, to bring them to shore at the launch past the campground.
Lantern Making
Making Lanterns
Most of the floating lanterns are made using a piece of insulation Styrofoam (blue or pink) as a base, which allows it to float and be very stable. These are used again and again.
We use sticks (either from old bamboo blinds, from packages of shish kebab sticks, garden stakes, or natural sticks) to make a form, poking the sticks into the base and using masking tape to connect them. (Everything that is not translucent becomes invisible once the lantern is lit in the dark.) We use white glue to attach tissue paper to the sticks, watering the glue down so that it can be spread on the paper between double layers. Using a rough paintbrush we glue more pieces of torn paper to the surface.
There are many variations - some people plan their designs carefully, others just work randomly. Some use scissors to cut the paper, others tear. One thing they all have in common, is that they are all beautiful, especially when lit, and the variety makes the collection even more beautiful. Another method we use in schools is to start with a 2 foot length of rice paper, and glue/paint the tissue paper onto it. When the picture is dry we glue the edge and roll it into a cylinder. We make a circle of bamboo sticks poked into a square base, and slip the paper cylinder on the outside of the circle.
We secure one or more small candles or tealights to the base with pieces of toothpick, and leave a gap for the long lighter to go through.
The heat from the flame travels directly upwards, so if the lantern is small we make sure there is a hole above the candle.
