these lanterns are made by the people of slaithwaite
for their yearly moonraking festival held in february.
they dress up, sing, dance and float lanterns down the canal
to tell the story of "the moonrakers".
the story goes:
in 1802 some smugglers working on one of the barges
secretly buried some rum under the reed beds in the canal...
later when they came to retrieve the loot, they were just about
to rake it out of the water when some customs men happened
on the scene. the officers shouted to the men and asked them
what they were pulling out of the water.
one of the smugglers noticed the moon reflected in the water and said,
"are you blind? cant you see that the moon has fallen into the water,
and were trying to rake her out before she drowns!" the customs men
looked at each other and burst out laughing. "moon fallen in the water?
a right lot of moonrakers you are!" and went about their business.
im desperate to go next year..
i think you can take classes
where you make a lantern.
i want to make a ghost.
*info from slaithwaitemoonraking.org*
6 comments:
Me too!
p.s. I just realized that I mixed you up with faery shoemaker recently, sorry about that! I guess my lack of sleep is getting to me...
A.xx
no worries!
i was mixed up before you did that :)
i thought you were thanking me for making a
sheep video! ha ha ha
Wow that's really cool. I'd love to go.
kind of amazing.... i just looked at a ton of photos on flickr. quite magical.
Along a similar vein, although without a cool story attached, is the Yi Peng Lantern Festival in Changmai, Thailand. They make big hot air paper lanterns, and when they are filled up with air, they are set free into the sky. They believe that as the lantern floats away into the sky, so do the troubles of the people who set them free. I went to the festival in 2006. The sky was so full of lanterns they looked like stars!
You can find out more about the festival here:
http://www.thaipro.com/events_00/121_loi_krathong.htm
love it!
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