GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - The light of over a thousand candles floating on the Great Brak River as darkness falls is sure to enchant and delight onlookers at the annual Lights & Lanterns festival on Saturday 21 December. It is the fourth year that this celebration of kindness, compassion and gratitude is celebrated and every year it is more spectacular.
The event starts at 19:00, opposite the police station in Lang Street. Cards (R30) and candles will be on sale from 2 December at the Total Garage in Great Brak River and can also be bought at the event.
The idea is to write any message - of appreciation, positivity, inspiration, hope and love - on the cards and attach them to the illuminated maypoles. Containers for the candles will be provided on the ground. People can bring their own picnic baskets to enjoy during the festival.
Laurinda Smit, initiator of the event, hopes that sharing the Lights & Lanterns will remind people of the importance of being with loved ones, enjoying an unhurried, relaxed evening under the stars. This ceremony provides an opportunity to reflect on values like abundance, love and kindness, to pause awhile in stillness before embarking on the new year.
Only recycled materials will be used for the festival - plastic bottles, discarded electric piping and wires. Everything is placed on floatable pallets, with the bottles weighed down with sand for safety purposes. The greatest care possible is taken to ensure that no pollution takes place in the river or on the riverbanks. To achieve this, several people in canoes or boats stay on the river throughout the event and a cleanup takes place immediately afterwards.
The project would not be possible without the generous support of the following businesses: Total Great Brak, Prime Cleaning Suppliers, Spar, Pick n Pay, Safari, Interwaste, Digifusion, Suiderkruis Sekuriteit, Midbrak Buurtwag, Mossel Bay Municipality, Mossel Bay Tourism and The Post.
Laurinda Smit can be contacted on 082 738 8011 for more information.
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