My little Lantern Festival

This is a story about a dream. When my oldest daughter entered school, I had a vision of starting a Lantern Festival in her school. After spending many years in both Taiwan and India, I was accustomed to the chaotic joy that the numerous festivals produced in those communities. It was in Taipei that I learned about Lantern Festival. Upon return to the United States, I truly missed the colourful cacophony and atmosphere, produced by the yearlong barrage of festivals, that I had grown accustomed to in Southeast Asia.

Since my daughter was attending a Mandarin immersion elementary school, I thought that a lantern festival would be entirely appropriate. Luckily, the principal and our booster club, Quan Ren, decided to give it the green light. Now seven years later, this little dream has taken root and become an established, annual festival that is well loved by the community. Every year aside from pandemic times, Lantern Festival is conducted in the course of a month, culminating with the lanterns being lit and hung in an outdoor setting. There are over 500 hand made lanterns and the festival attracts around 500 people.

My idea started with creating a paper lanterns out of recycled milk containers. I had a very small budget and the model needed to be simple with very little material. I created a different individual lantern model for each class, grades kindergarten through Eighth grade. Then, I went to each class and instructed the students how to make their own version of the model. The lanterns are each individual, made from a milk container, cut paper, glue and lots of little scissors. I basically teach them to think of their scissors as a paint brush and the paper their paint. Whatever line or shape they need, they can cut instead. The scissors are their main tool.

This is where the scissors start to fit in at nearly every stage of production. First, we organize a school wide recycling drive to collect the containers. Then ask for parent volunteers to help prep the structure for the lantern. This means rinse out and cut the 500 containers up a bit. Now, surprisingly enough, not all parents are crafty, so many have learned a lot from simply cutting milk containers with scissors. It was a revelation for many of them! Some of them needed to be trained in cutting out the sides of cartons. In this process, scissors become a hot topic. Even the novice can recognize the importance of using a good pair of scissors. The school secretary proclaimed that she would need to replace the all scissors that did not have a comfortable grip.

Though the process of cutting the containers for the students is a bit tedious, the community that is made through the task is special. Many friends have been made through the bonding of cutting these cartons. It has also produced some very lively debates about the best way to cut, horizontal vs vertical, scissors vs. box cutter, and the principal even once brought in an electric drill!

Next there is a team who volunteer to help cut out the appropriate sized papers for each lantern. While it is true that our school has a paper dye cutter for some shapes, I find that the aesthetic which it produces to be inferior to the children’s unique, signature cuts. So, much to the volunteers chagrin, hand cutting is again required. The students are presented with a cut out container, a sheet of tissue paper, a pile of papers, glue and scissors.

Though the students follow the basic idea of the model lantern, I always emphasize that their ideas should be incorporated into the model, to make it their own. Each lantern is imbued with the students personality and artistic flair. No two lanterns are ever identical. We make a variety of animals and people characters, which changes with the years. From tigers, panda bears, roosters and blue Macaws to leprechauns, terra cotta soldiers, kings, queens and construction workers. Many times the kids have come up with amazing ideas that we can incorporate into the design.

I feel great joy in watching the students confidence grow and their minds expand through working out the difficulties of this project. So many kids approach it saying that ‘they cannot make that!’ and end up happily surprised in the end to see their accomplishment. When students come up with a great idea, I share it with the class. It is wonderful to see the pride in their eyes, as well as, the excitement that generates with other kids to create their own ideas. It is exciting to me to hear the students enjoy the project year after year and look forward to making the next years model. Many of the families save these lanterns and keep their collection hung at home.

The stringing and hanging of the lights and lanterns happens under a strict three and a half hour schedule. The lanterns must be hung beneath the play structure on the playground, after the last bell at 2:55pm and finished by 6:30pm on the day of the festival. After the last bell rings, starts an influx of joyful parent and teacher volunteers flying around to make it happen. Amidst a riot of ladders, ropes, lights, extension cords, ‘just in case’ tarps and canopies, a flurry of excitement takes place. Lanterns are lit, tied and strung on lines between rows of riddles. Year after year, seasoned volunteers stream in to help train the new parents on the art of hanging lanterns. At first they seem bewildered, by the next year they are pros, always coming back for more! I could not be more proud of our school community for happily taking part in this frenetic yearly ritual.

I feel that though it is just a simple art project, the students learn a lot artistically, as well as, learning about this new cultural festival. Though the festival pays reverence to its traditional culture, it also somehow has become uniquely our own. It has been a honor to hear Chinese teachers say that in that moment, they feel as if they are back in their homeland. The lanterns are each lit with an led light and strung in rows between lines of colourful papers with riddles and bells on them. The activity of the night is to gather together, under the full moon, admire the lanterns and solve the riddles. The atmosphere is also filled with live music, snacks and hot chocolate.

Each year following the lunar calendar, we celebrate Lantern Festival. It brings so many different members of our community together, that we feel pure unity for a few fleeting hours. Some years the festival occurs under a moon lit sky and sometimes with help of canopies under torrential rainy nights. But no matter the weather, the atmosphere is always beautiful and the night becomes a magical memory. Many families have expressed that it is their favorite event of the year. I know it is mine. After a month of sore fingers and tired arms from hundreds of different cuts, the excitement of bringing people together for this beautiful event makes all the callouses fade away.

To think that all of this joy, charming art made, fun memories, lessons learned for the adults and the kids, friendships made, stories told and riddles solved, came from a little dream is profound! That dream became a reality from a simple empty milk container, a little bit of paper, a bottle of glue and a pair of scissors and the vision of something bigger. Now when my three children come to me with an idea, however big or small, we just smile knowing that together, we can somehow make it happen. Dreams really can come true, if only you try.