On Saturday 21 December 2019 from 19:00 the annual Lights & Lanterns festival, a celebration of kindness, compassion and gratitude, will enchant and delight onlookers for the fourth time as more than a thousand candles will be floated on the Great Brak River. Every year the event promises to be more and more spectacular.
Only recycled material 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.
Cards and candles will be on sale @ R30 from 2 December 2019 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. People can bring their own picnic baskets to enjoy during the festival.
This project would not have been possible without the generous support of the following businesses: TOTAL Grootbrak, Prime Cleaning Suppliers, SPAR De Dekke, Pick n Pay Groot-Brakrivier, Safari, Interwaste, Suiderkruis Sekuriteit, Midbrak Buurtwag, Mosselbaai Munisipaliteit, Mosselbaai Toerisme and The Post.
For Laurinda Smit, initiator of the event, sharing the Lights & Lanterns will hopefully 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.
Laurinda Smit can be contacted on 082 738 8011 for more information.
