The Children and the Arts Day Festival Committee has announced it plans to hold a lantern parade again next year.
The Festival of Light Lantern Parade was held in conjunction with the Peterborough town Christmas tree lighting on Dec. 1 as a celebration of Children and the Arts’ 25 years of festivals.
The May festival in Peterborough celebrates children and the arts and includes a Giant Puppet Parade down Main and Grove streets. Festival organizers said the lantern parade was also a nod to its 2019 Children and the Arts Festival, planned to take place on May 18, dubbed “Let Your Light Shine.”
To help organize the lantern parade and teach lantern making, the committee hired Vermont-based international visual artist Gowri Savoor.
The festival was able to hire Savoor and pay for other expenses for the event through private donations as well as through grants from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts and the Putnam Foundation through the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.
Originally from England, Savoor was inspired by the nighttime parades of her home country. Nearly a decade ago, she helped the community of Waterbury, Vermont start their River of Light Lantern Parade. Since then Savoor has worked with more than 20 communities in New England to create lantern parades.
With Savoor guiding the way, Children and the Arts Festival committee Chairwoman Tina Kriebel said, about 800 lanterns were made at community and school events in preparation for the parade. People also made lanterns at home or bought them.
In the end more than 1,000 people filled Grove Street the night of the parade to both march and watch the town’s first lantern parade, making it a beautiful and magical event, said Terry Reeves, one of the founding volunteers of the Children and the Arts Day Festival on Wednesday.
Organizers had not intended it to be an annual event, Reeves said, but were so moved by the event, community support and participation they are now planning a second to be held at the 2019 Peterborough town Christmas tree lighting.
“It impacted us,” Reeves said. “I think we are doing it again because we ourselves were blown away by how many people showed up with lanterns to march in the parade and how magical it was and how beautiful it was. It was breathtaking.”
Donations are also already coming in to support the 2019 Festival of Light Lantern Parade that has been given the theme “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”
Donations can be sent to Children and the Arts Festival, PO Box 771, Peterborough, NH 03458.