Vancouver Likes Daytime In The Dark
The longest night of the year shined a little brighter in Vancouver
, British Columbia, as thousands of people brought light to the streets at the annual Winter Solstice Lantern Festival.
The glow of handmade illuminate lanterns Five neighborhoods throughout the city on Tuesday, bobbing gracefully in the night. The lights were carried through the streets in processions by community members who were joined at the end of their routes by hundreds of performers, including musicians, dancers and acrobats.
Winter solstice falls annually either on Dec. 22 or Dec. 23 when the sun is directly above the Tropic of Capricorn and the North Pole is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun.
For those in the northern hemisphere, the date marks the day of the year with the least hours of light, as well as the beginning of the lengthening of the days.
Naomi Singer said ,"Everyone experiences. It's not an idea. It's not based in any particular religion. So people all over the globe have celebrated the same event, which is the returning of the light, but they've all done it in different translations of how they did it, and this is our tradition", the founder and artistic director of the festival.
Vancouver's Winter Solstice Festival began 17 years ago on Granville Island -- a small enclave nestled in a short inlet in the heart of Vancouver and a favorite spot of tourists for its quirky artistic flare -- where Singer was attending art school at the time.
The festival has since ballooned in popularity and has grown to attract an estimated 20,000 people each year. The festival is split between different neighborhoods to maintain the intimacy of the experience.
This year the festival featured hundreds of performers, representing roughly 20 cultures from around the world.Performances ranged from small jazz ensembles, street bands, choirs, and drum circles, to silk aerial acrobats, Shakti dancers, stilt walkers, and traditional British Morris dancers.
Visitors could also attend lantern-making workshops before the processions began, bond with each other beneath a tree made of glowing paper lanterns, or meditate in one of two labyrinths of light -- a spiraling maze of over 700 pure beeswax candles meant to create a space for self-guided ceremonies intended to release old attachments and envision new possibilities.
"It's all about community. Christmas is a wonderful season, or everybody's got their own thing this time of year, but so often it's just about family, and family's great, but we also, all of our families are part of this huge community," said performer Andrew Brechin.
by: Chris Wood
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