Sandra Storey
The 27th annual Lantern Parade will be two festivities this year, with one on Sat., Oct. 23 and one on Sun. Oct. 24, both beginning at dusk at Jamaica Pond. Sponsored by Spontaneous Celebrations, music, cider and empanadas will be available both evenings.
The previous 26 lantern parades were only one night.
“We had a lot of people,” was the obvious explanation given by Maaak Pelletier, Spontaneous’s seasonal celebrations coordinator, in an interview this week. Saying the goal is to just to circle the pond, the park was “too packed” with people and lanterns in recent years. “Rather than stop telling people to come,” he said, “we decided to have it two nights.”
Pelletier said it is a bit of an experiment. It will be interesting to see which night people seem to prefer and if some people come for both nights, he said. The only difference in the event will be different bands.
A concern every year is that there are enough lanterns for everyone who wants one. Lantern-making workshops will be held at Spontaneous on Friday night, at the Connolly Library on Saturday at noon and at the boathouse at the pond on Sunday afternoon.
Pelletier said, only half-jokingly, that people who go on Saturday might want to give their lantern to someone who is going on Sunday.