At Michigan's Water Lantern Festivals, participants release more than lights
In city after city, as the hundreds — and often thousands — of glowing and colorful lanterns are set adrift on the water, so too are the deep emotions that have weighed on the event participants who release them.
The events, festival organizer Hayden Earl said, are deeply moving — and cathartic — experiences.
"It really does make for a beautiful scene," Earl told the Free Press this week, describing how the Water Lantern Festivals work, and how the individual lights come together to create changing patterns on the water. "It’s also kinda fun to see everyone’s lantern and what their designs are like."
In Michigan, the next event is set for Aug. 26, at Lake St. Clair Metropark, 31300 Metro Parkway in Harrison Township. It starts at 5:30 p.m. and ends at about 9:30 p.m. Organizers expect about 2,400 people to buy tickets to it, and release at least that many lanterns.
Another festival is set for Oct. 7, in Lansing at Adado Riverfront Park, 201 E Shiawassee St.
The lanterns, which the participants decorate, "will really stick out," Earl said. Some are brightly colored with elaborate designs. Others are covered with intensely personal messages and letters written on them. They all glow in the twilight.
In addition to the lantern launch, Earl said, there are food trucks, vendors, and a scavenger hunt. And just before the release, there is an open mic moment, that often leads to a flood of emotions, generating smiles, laughter, and tears.
From runs to festivals
Organizers said they didn’t attempt to base their event on any cultural traditions, although, by many accounts, Asian cultures have traditions that include releasing lights on rivers, lakes and into the air that goes back thousands of years.
The Logan, Utah-based company that puts on the modern Water Lantern Festivals said their events grew out of the Color Vibe, which organized five-kilometer, paint races nationwide. The participants would run through mists of nontoxic, biodegradable, "magic color power," a food-grade cornstarch that washes out of clothes, hair and skin.
The vibrant colors — blue, yellow, pink, purple and green — would create, the organizers said, "a rainbow of happiness" for the runners, which often included whole families, sometimes even in costumes and zany outfits.
About five years ago, Earl said, the company began organizing water festivals and does about 100 a year.
To participate, Earl said, folks buy a ticket that includes a rice-paper and wood lantern kit, that includes an LED light, markers, some conversation cards, playing cards, and directions for the scavenger hunt. The aim is for people to put together their lantern, seven-inch cubes.
Some people bring their own markers and art supplies.
The ticket price also covers the cost for organizers to retrieve the lanterns and clean up the park.
"The primary focus is to get the community involved," Earl said. "To get to know your neighbor."
Kaleidoscope of color
Just before the lantern release, organizers offer what they call lantern stories, a chance for people who want to, to explain their lantern design and to tell the crowd what is on their mind and why they are there.
Some are there to celebrate something new in their life that they are excited about, a new relationship, a new job. Others come, to let go of something that they have held onto that has caused them discomfort, or as a memorial, to say goodbye to a loved one.
Earl, who is still in college, said that one of the more heartbreaking stories he heard was in Mississippi.
A mom talked about the sudden and unexplained death of her 6-month-old daughter.
He asked: How does a parent even begin deal with that kind of tragedy?
The mother, Earl said, wrote a letter to her child on the four sides of the lantern. She expressed her hopes and aspirations for her baby girl and released the light into the water. It seemed, he said, to help her let go of some of her pain – and accept what had happened.
On the water, the lanterns flicker and drift, creating a kaleidoscope of color and light.
"You get to see them reflect off the water," Earl said. "It really is like something from a fairy tale."
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.
Water Lantern Festival
The annual events are organized in about 100 cities nationwide, including metro Detroit and Lansing.
In metro Detroit, the festival is from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Aug 26 at Lake St. Clair Metropark, 31300 Metro Parkway in Harrison Township, with tickets selling online at waterlanternfestival.com for $35.99 through Aug. 18, $45.99 through Aug. 25, and $55.99 on Aug. 26.
In Lansing, the festival is from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 7 at Adado Riverfront Park, 201 E Shiawassee St., with tickets selling for $35.99 through Aug. 29, $45.99 through Oct. 6, and $55.99 on Oct. 27.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Water Lantern Festivals coming to Lake St. Clair Metropark
