Water Lantern Festival
I’m always on the lookout for something different to see or do! It might be a visit to a small town or diner or it might be an event. The other day I read about a Festival of which I was unaware. So, after I told Terry about it he booked us (expensive!) tickets to an Edmonton event called “the Water Lantern Festival”. As you know, we have had more rain/wind/hail and tornado warnings this summer than in the last one hundred years so it was encouraging to find out it was supposed to be a fairly nice evening on that particular Saturday.
What I didn’t expect (among other things) was that we would have to walk about a kilometer to get to the site! But , I made it and Terry pulled our wagon filled with 2 chairs, a table, a blanket, snacks, our books, umbrellas, and game so that we could fill the 3 hours until the darkness surrounded us.
After we received our lantern kits and we set ourselves up near the water, Terry headed off to purchase dinner from a food truck. There were THOUSANDS of people there. How did I not hear of this yearly event before? Anyway, Terry stood in line while I put together my lantern and waited for him while ‘people watching’.
I enjoyed watching all the different nationalities of people creating their lanterns. I decided that mine would be sent off into the water later as a prayer.
What we didn’t expect is that Terry and I would be apart for the entire evening! He stood in line for a crappy hot dog and cold fries for SEVENTY minutes! Somewhere in there it started to lightly rain.
Finally, Terry returned and told me about finally getting to second in line and the man in front of him brought up 3 families to order! Ugh! In the meantime, we’re listening to a good singer and then another man on mic put the call out for people to tell their stories. I have never heard so many sad tales of homicides and other forms of death. People obviously use this festival as a cathartic way of healing from their wounds! There was even a public meditation!
Right when Terry returned to the table, the crowd was called to bring their lanterns to the lake. Ha ha. Luckily, he made his ‘love letter’ to me in about 15 seconds and ate his terrible food just as fast. We decided enough was enough of this weird evening apart so we packed up our stuff, found a place to launch the lanterns, and spent the kilometer walking back while swatting gazillions of mosquitoes away from our bodies. Those wee beasties also flew into my van and we had a yucky time driving home and trying to keep them away from us ‘till we got there.
Um….never again…ha ha.
