November 2012

If you haven’t ever been in Jamaica Plain for the autumn solstice, you probably have never heard of a lantern walk. Every year JP, a neighborhood in Boston, hosts a Lantern Walk. People with home made lanterns (typically made from 2 liter bottle and tissue paper) crowd the path along Jamaica Pond. Musicians and performers dot the path to entertain the walkers and the lanterns light up the horizon. Some of these lanterns are pretty detailed and intricate. JP is a greet place, with such an awesome energy. Much thanks for this energy should be given to Spontaneous Celebrations, a non profit who organizes this and the “Wake up the Earth” celebration in the spring.
Since we’ve recently moved to a neighborhood with a pond, I thought it would be really cool to do a lantern walk here. I couldn’t invite the entire neighborhood this year, instead I invited some old and new neighbors. We had a pretty good turn out, considering I began sending text invites three days before. It was a pretty tall order too: “your invited… by the way, you need to make a lantern”. So India and I made a few extras, and we hosted a lantern making party the day before. The favorite lantern I made had a wolf howling at the moon. It was swiped by a 3 year old. I didn’t complain too loudly. I’ll just have to make an even cooler one for next year’s walk.

Everyone enjoyed walking the pitch black, coyote filled backwoods of our neighborhood.