#lantern parade

[the-night-picture-collector]

/ Thomas Cooper Gotch, The Lantern Parade, 1918

[punkedsolar]

Here is a video of my singing lyrebird!

The culmination of six or so weeks of crazy amounts of work. In my city, we have a yearly lantern parade on the Winter Solstice to light the night up. Everyone makes lanterns and we close the whole centre of the area to walk the street.

Lantern Making Process

Lantern making starts with a series of sketches. These are usually made life size so I know roughly how much space I will be taking up. I have to carry the lantern to the centre of town, so if it's too big to get through the narrow bush tracks where I live, I'll have trouble.

Once the size is known, I can pin out the rattan shapes. I boil the rattan first, and then I bend it into shape. If I can, I tape it in place, but wet rattan won't tape. So I bend it and dry it in shape, then I tape it. This process can take days and days.

The rattan shape is held in place by PVA glue and rice paper. I mix the glue 50/50 with water, apply rice paper, and then wait for it to dry in place. Once there is a single dry layer I can then add more. 2-3 layers of glued paper gradually form a lacquered layer that can support weight.

After this it's the time to start adding supports and areas where lights can be held. This time around I've got some USB controlled soundbars, and they have to be attached.

For small, simple lights, stick on Velcro dots work well.

For heavier, more detailed ones, I bind them into the lantern under more rice paper and glue. I need the solidity of the lacquered paper to avoid them ripping through.

For a few areas this year, I designed and printed elements on my partner's Bambu Lab printer. The beak is actually a 3D scan of a real lyrebird beak that was in a museum. The feet I designed myself.

At every point where I do something that could damage the wiring, I perform another wiring test. The hot glue could possibly melt the wiring - it definitely removed my fingerprints.

The bird, once finished, gets decoration as well - lots of printed feathers that I have to individually glue in place. The wings are velcro attached and also a mixture of rice paper and normal paper.

The head has a bike brake cable inside which goes down to a rod that holds it up. When I squeeze the brake, the mouth opens and closes.

The claws that wrap over a thick vest covered in hot glued plants - the entire bird stands on it's own feet, wired to the base.

The vest was then covered in decoration to make it look like the bird is standing on a forest floor.

After this process, I put a Bluetooth speaker into the lantern's body and used my phone to control both the lights and the music. With the jaw able to open and close, the bird could actually sing.

And all of this resulted in a lantern that just stood on my shoulders in the parade and could animatedly interact with others.

And here she is!

Curious about other lanterns and the rest of the parade? Here are some of the other magnificent creations! Thanks to our wonderful parade photographers.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Thomas Cooper Gotch - The Lantern Parade (c. 1918)

* * * *

Ancestors Adrienne Su

We see them as old, but they were thirty once, thirteen. They’re dead, not aged. They seldom imagined us; we were unknowable, an idea. One earthquake, one defeat of a dynasty,

and we could be wiped from the future. They dwelled on the coming of winter, the drying of grains, salting of meat. They talked of who would be magistrate,

swept the graves of their grandparents, raised children to ask careful questions.

Some centuries, they fought off invaders (human, insect, microbial) but embraced

the concept of heaven for being practical, a way of eliciting virtue, without being gullible

enough to trade this life for the hereafter. When it was time to send sons and daughters

across the Pacific, they let them travel and thus ensured the survival of the people, minus

the land and, later, the language. This is how I find myself homesteading in small-town

Pennsylvania, thrilled by the announcement, by paper menu, of a new Chinese restaurant,

despite boilerplate dishes, my inability to address the owners with fluency, and my cooking habit. It means the journey isn’t over. Someone, though outside my family, whose mother and father still eat from the soil in which most of my ancestors dwell

(themselves become fruit and flowers), is trying this place, which feels like nowhere,

which is how the creation myth always begins, with emptiness waiting to be broken.

Adrienne Su is the author of four books of poems, most recently Living Quarters (Manic D Press, 2015). Recipient of an NEA fellowship, she teaches at Dickinson College, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

[32 poems]

[cacneaaa]

Lantern Parade 2026

[doubtspirit]

Saint Martin's Day, Germany

[huariqueje]

St, Martins evening, Dusseldorf - Fritz Möritz

German , 1922-1994

oil on canvas , 30.5 x 24.4 cm.

[emmikatjohnson]

This is Echo! The tassel-finned dragoon who was designed by a 1st-3rd grade Montessori class in Bozeman, Montana and brought to life by myself and others under the instruction of Mr. Andrew Kim of Thingamajig Theatre for Random Acts of Silliness. Photos by Loneman Photography

Learn More about Echo!

See how Echo came to life during the workshop

Join Echo at the Menagerie of the Imaginary Lantern Parade in Bozeman, MT on February 22nd

[starrystillness]

Lantern Parade, Aberteifi