First Lantern Parade meeting – Wed 21st Nov, 6pm

[penelopeelse]

On the 15th December we aim to start a new Christmas tradition – the kind that kids remember fondly when they grow up - and the first brainstorming meeting for the Lantern Parade is tomorrow evening (Weds, 6pm) at the old Wooster & Stock offices at 109 Kirkdale.

It's going to be the cutest thing ever - come and help make it happen!

Please let me know if you will be coming - more information and contact details here:
http://www.see3.co.uk/2012/11/first-lan ... t-nov-6pm/

[The Clown]

What a lovely idea.

[Whiftoff]

That’s a great idea! We go to festival each year called Croissant Nuef in USK in Wales. Its only a few thousand people and on the Sunday evening they have a Lantern Parade up to the old iron fort. All the kids spend the day making Lanterns and everyone takes part in the parade. It’s a really nice way to finish off the weekend.

This will be great event for the local area.

[Robin Orton]

I haven't heard of a 'Lantern Parade' before - sounds an interesting new cultural phenomenon. Anyone know anything about its origin and significance? I assume it isn't specific to Christmas?

[Annie.]

It would be nice to know it is specific to Christmas, don't you think ? Being a Christian country,its always nice to celebrate the fact.

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[leenewham]

It's a great idea. Christmas is all about lights and fun.

It would be good to emulate something like this.
http://streetwiseperformance.wordpress. ... n-parades/

They have lantern parades in different parts of the world to celebrate different things Robin, In Italy they have them at Christmas. Christmas trees, giving presents and Christianity itself didn't originate in the UK, neither did pies, fish and chips or our current royal family.

I'm all for this. It will be good for Sydenham, the high street and be fun. Lets get behind it and support it rather than questioning every idea.

Everybody go WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[Annie.]

I think it's a lovely idea.

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[Robin Orton]

Christmas is all about lights and fun.

I suppose so.

Everybody go WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Must I? OK, if you insist.

Lets get behind it and support it rather than questioning every idea.

I wasn't questioning it, but asking questions about it - not the same thing. In fact, I've now done a bit of research online myself ((any excuse for a bit of displacement activity). The oldest(1994) lantern parade I could find via Google was in Lismore NSW, as part of a midwinter (i.e. June) festival. From their website:

Lanterns, fire and outdoor celebration are deeply embedded in many cultures from China, Japan, Burma and Vietnam to Europe and Africa. The lantern represents a positive metaphor for community optimism and hope throughout the world and it was from this tradition that the Lismore Lantern Parade was born. The universal and multicultural theme makes the Lantern Parade appealing to people from all walks of life and nationalities

.

It appears that in this country many lantern parades are designed to launch the 'festive season' , but they are also found at Hallowe'en (Sefton ) or as part of any general community jollifications which happen to take place during the autumn.

[leenewham]

I would pay money to see you go WOOOOOOOOOO! Robin.

I think we all would!

[penelopeelse]

Hi All

I love that you're all so keen! We see it as a way of bringing together people from all 3 areas.

Please, please tell 3 friends about it, and ask if they would be able to host/lead a lantern workshop, big or small. They're easy to make (we're hopefully going to make a video), so it will be easy to pick up and pass on.

Lantern Parade - workshop venues & leaders needed:
http://sydenham.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8704

[Tim Lund]

I would pay money to see you go WOOOOOOOOOO! Robin.

I think we all would!

People invent and reinvent traditions the whole time - some catch on, some don't. I think it would be nice if this one does.

To keep them going, it helps for traditions to be established over time, or have some history to them, which is why otherwise sane people can be got to take up Morris Dancing - a tradition which was largely reinvented about 100 years ago. I'd say the same goes for all religion - but it's none of it essential.

I sometimes think that if Robin didn't exist, we'd have to invent him.

[Robin Orton]

I always assume (perhaps wrongly) that any public ritual or celebration, old or new, must mean something. This is what I find puzzling about, for example, the modern Hallowe'en - is it about the dead, as some of its pagan or Christian precursors may have been, or about evil spirits, demons, witches, the powers of darkness? If the latter, is it celebrating them or or trying to ward them off? And what does 'the festive season' mean in our post-Christian society?

Perhaps lantern parades should be 'read' as communal celebrations of the victory of light over darkness (which could of course be interpreted in a Christian or in a pagan way). In that case, I'm all in favour. In any event, anything that lures people away from their computers and TV sets and encourages them to party in a public space with their neighbours rather than in their hermetically sealed domestic cells must surely be a good idea.

[Tim Lund]

what does 'the festive season' mean in our post-Christian society?

I was hearing answers in an office yesterday - people saying how much they are looking forward to Christmas as a time to get away from the routine of the rest of the year, spend time with friends and family. Of course it's doesn't always work out, but that's the intent. And if a lantern parade works to set the mood locally, why not?

[Robin Orton]

I was hearing answers in an office yesterday - people saying how much they are looking forward to Christmas as a time to get away from the routine of the rest of the year, spend time with friends and family.

So it's just a break from work - wouldn't matter particularly when it was?

[Tim Lund]

So it's just a break from work - wouldn't matter particularly when it was?

Not really, but no harm using actual history - that there have been such winter festivals for millennia.

As is happens, there's one current 'Christmas' tradition which I dislike because it doesn't work (for me) in winter. This is the office Christmas Party. I quite like the idea of a social event for everybody in an office, but I'd prefer it to be out of doors, in decent weather, with more space to move around, and not jammed elbow to elbow next to the same person in an overpriced restaurant.

But lanterns obviously work better in winter.

[Robin Orton]

So it's just a break from work - wouldn't matter particularly when it was?

Not really, [...]

It looks as if we've abandoned 'the sanctification of time' then.