We are so very grateful to you for sharing your love of this festival with us.

Please let us know about your special solstice experiences!

Naomi Singer is a Vancouver treasure, and her Secret Lantern events are an important part of Vancouver holidays, ones I’ve been taking part in for many years, whether at Trout Lake, Yaletown, or Granville Island – they are wondrous and magical occasions.
I especially love her Solstice festival, which lights up the darkest season of the year, carrying on traditions from all around the world.  People of all cultures, religions, and none joyously take part in this festival celebrating the darkest night of the year and the returning sun.  These events bring together the whole community with a wondrous explosion of vitality.
I’ve brought friends with vastly differing tastes, as one can enjoy quiet jazz, another peacefully make a wreath, with a third dancing happily to the different bands or watching the Morris Men with their centuries-old dance and songs.  Then we meet in the middle for a snack or cocoa.  Truly, it’s an event all can enjoy!
I see such joy on the faces of the parents and children who beam as brightly as their lanterns. It’s a terrific event for families, couples and singles too.  Children and adults are captivated by the parade, proudly carrying the lanterns or dancing along with the Carnival band. 
People watching too enjoy the beauty of the spectacle.  The power of the Morris Men lighting the torches in the dark of Granville Island or near the Roundhouse on the longest night of the year cannot be overestimated on all our spirits.
The Solstice celebration brings myth, story,  and music to the world,  connecting the community during a season that can be challenging for many. 
Naomi Singer brings beauty, joy, laughter and merriment to the community, melding old traditions and new in seamless ways with wonderful artists, performers, storytellers, and musicians.  Our challenged world needs more connection and more magic.  Her events always provide it.
This is a thank-you for decades of enjoyment that friends young and old have enjoyed equally.

Yours gratefully and sincerely,
Linda Lawson

Linda Lawson
March 17, 2024

Deep bows of gratitude to Naomi Singer, the Founding Artistic Director of the Secret Lantern Society in Vancouver, BC (our namesake). It was the magic of her vision that sung to our hearts. We felt moved to honor the beauty of her work by carrying that light east and extending the heart-centered gift.

Debra Sheldon, AD of Secret Lantern Society, NYC
December 15, 2022

Happy Holidays Naomi (and I hope that the word “Holidays“ includes a good rest!”) On Sunday, when I sent an email to you via Secret Lantern, thanking you for the night before, I included a “hot off the presses“ photo of two of the RH Fire Dancers exchanging a look of joy as they danced with flames. This photo on this card was taken there a number of years ago, but also shows people with looks of joy up on their faces. I want to thank you for all the solstices you have created, that have put a look of joy up on my own face so many times. This year, some members of my family shifted our annual get-together from Christmas to the night before solstice, because they have seen and heard how much I’ve shifted, to having Dec 21 be the focus of my seasonal excitement. This year I was introducing 2 friends to the event, and, when I ran into you, they had been caught in that transit delay. They were considering just giving up. Instead, they showed up - a father and young daughter - and I got to see her joy reflected in his face. Thanks for that moment of joy, too!

Nancy S.
December 26, 2019

I love this event and my winter would be nothing without this wonderful 20 year tradition in my life. I have friends over for hearty soups before we join the walk to Granville Island from Legg in Boot Square. We normally enjoy the beginning of the festivities and then walk home for desert, tea and our own Solstice traditions. I am very appreciative for all you do and I am so grateful that we even have this event to celebrate the shortest day.

Judy Chrastina
November 28, 2019

Truly my favorite few hours every year with our two children is celebrating the solstice at the Granville Island Community Center. The people are so friendly and our girls dance to the Carnival Band and enjoy the Morris Men and square dance with smiles. Thank you so much for hosting such a special event. Fun Vancouver fun what a community!

Tony Molyneux
January 7, 2018

Thank you for the Solstice Festival you hosted in the Yaletown community yesterday!! It was a wonderful event for our community. Truly a remarkable festive and healing event. All people are felt welcome and members of the community celebrate together. Everyone dances and sings from young to old. Educational with the new stars experience. My family lives very far from Yaletown, but it does not feel like it when I attend this community event. It is our seasonal celebration. We look forward to it every year.

Keep up the excellent work. Happy Solstice!!

Sharon Walker
December 22, 2017

I found your website from a friend. As a gift to my nephew last Christmas , I gave him a big blank book and told him he would receive a letter every week for the next year.

I didn't really know what I was going to do, but because of your website and the fact that his birthday is on the winter solstice, I was inspired to create a Minnesota branch of the Secret Lantern Society and have been writing him letters from the Society with activities to do around the theme of light.

I'd like to organize a lantern making workshop(s) and have a very small lantern parade or party for his birthday (perhaps a precursor to a Minneapolis lantern festival in the future). I hope you don't mind that I used your very cool name:)

Susan Patterson
August 9, 2017

Thank you sooooooooooo much for having us play at the Sun Yat Sen Garden for your Winter Solstice event. It was a great treat to be a part of this magical night. The lanterns looked stunning in this gem of a venue....especially the dragon in the pagoda. Totally amazing! Also fantastic was Andrew Laurenson’s sun projection over the pond.

Thank you so much for creating this special and valuable celebration.

Katheryn Petersen
December 28, 2017

The Secret Lantern Society's Winter Solstice Celebrations have been a family tradition for our family for over 15 years. These evening's events link us to the best our city has to offer: magic making artists, musicians, nature, sharing with the community and holding sacred, intimate spaces together.

I always feel that something very special is happening when I begin preparing for Solstice, knowing that I can take my feelings for honoring the blessed darkness to a community that does so as well.

Thank-you Sacred Lantern Society for your commitment to creating and improvising magic, merriment, community and art year after year!

Tricia and Family
November 26, 2017

Last night's event was fantastic! My group, Zlatna Mountain, had a wonderful experience. We were delighted from the moment we got into the hall, and we felt proud and honoured to be performing for such a large and keen audience, as folks streamed into the hall and filled it up from the moment the doors opened. Thank you so much for having us perform at this event - it was great exposure for our young professional band. The hall was a very nice performing room, with great acoustics and sight-lines. All the staff that I encountered were immensely helpful! You have a great team!

I have been going to many festivals in Vancouver for years (Parade of Lost Souls, your festival, Bhangra Festival, Folk Festival, Car Free days...) and I believe that your festival is the most wonderful balance between community-spirit and professional performance. Your festival is one of the highlights of my year, as it falls on a very important seasonal holiday. I love that this holiday isn't just about human culture, but that it celebrates a important celestial event. Hurrah for you for offering that connection between human and nature – it’s so important in these times when nature has become so fragmented in this city. I love that you seek out performers who can offer old-world music and dance – i.e. Morris men & women, Haida First Nations, and Zlatna Mountain (and probably more....).

What you provide to this City is invaluable! Your festival fills me with hope and happiness, and I'm proud that my City has a winter solstice lantern festival such as yours!

Kris Zalite
December 22, 2016

I'm writing to tell you how much I enjoyed the Lantern Festival at the Roundhouse Community Center last week. It's my second year attending, and I feel so blessed to have this in my neighborhood for the winter solstice. The labyrinth installation, and the fusion/sacred music/story telling soundscape under the tree of life lantern with Naad offer an unparalleled sanctuary for anybody that wants to ponder the passing year, and to accept/release it without judgement. I love how the festival features sights and sounds that transcend religious expression, while at the same time, honours practices drawn from so many religions. It's perfect for the mish-mash of religious traditions that our many immigrant groups have brought to Vancouver.

Plus I love how you've made the event such a welcome place for children, with all the interesting kid-friendly side shows going on. This is what going to church should be like!!!!!!!! Just celebrate the magic of life.

I wish you could make it a monthly tradition for the new moon as well. I'd for sure go, and I'd happily perform any grunt work I can, to help make that happen. I go to the labyrinth at St Paul’s, but, the little theatre and chant music that you perform with the labyrinth installation makes the experience so much richer for me. I really get a sense of ancient wisdom being present in my life right now.

Thank you for all your efforts on putting on such a great event.

Peter Brouwer
December 25, 2015

We are moving back to NYC after three full years in Vancouver and one of the things that stands out the most for me is your organization, your vision and the magical events you have organized. I would love to bring a vision like this to NYC. I am wondering if you might be able to share some thoughts about budgets and staffing at some point, either in person or via email. Before my eldest child was born I was the Director of the Citizens Committee for NYC and helped get seed money and support to bring projects like Make Music NY to life. Having a Secret Lantern Society in NYC would be so wonderful. I imagine you are very busy now leading up to the Solstice. I hope we can meet soon either virtually or in person.

Debra Sheldon
December 18, 2015

This message is to thank all the organizers and volunteers for the beautiful solstice festival. It truly warmed our hearts and souls with the many forms of art, light and energy. I participated in building a lantern in advance of the festival and had a wonderful time meeting my neighbours in the community. The lantern was a welcoming beacon when we joined the procession, meeting many great new friends who introduced themselves and admired my own art form. The music and fire shows in David Lam park and the Roundhouse celebrates life and energy and community. Fills me with happiness and joy and light. Celebrating the earth, simple times and the most important things in life. Each year it is more beautiful than the last. As the new year begins we are full of positive energy and magic. Thank you for welcoming us into your Secret Society.

Sharon Walker
December 22, 2015

Probably the best night I have ever had with my 2 young children was during the Solstice celebration on Granville Island. Our girls 4 and 6 years at the time, played and ran in the gym and then were captivated by the community Carnival Band promenading around the hall in a spontaneous show of music, "light", and humour. The parade of lanterns truly brings people together as they talk about their creations and make their way around the seashore outside in the festive night. What a real gift this festival is to our community and artists alike.

Tony Molyneux
December 9, 2013

I am writing you to comment how wonderful the Winter Solstice Lantern Festival is every year, especially the procession which begins at the Science Centre to the False Creek Community Centre. I 'always 'envy' the fortunate people who have the privilege of carrying those beautiful and mysterious golden orbs.

I recall from previous years. hearing the Society's difficulty with funding. Is the Lantern Festival going ahead this year? I am looking forward to it and possibly bringing some relatives.

Deborah Jang
December 16. 2013

I stumbled on this event a couple of years ago! I love the parade of lanterns and the Morris Mens’ unique and historic presentation. I did not fully understand them until I read about them. Very interesting history! I also enjoy the Carnival Band and the fire dancers...hell it is all good! Keep up the good work!

Casey Hilton
November 8, 2013

I've been meaning to write to you about my feelings about the Solstice Festival. Since moving to Vancouver almost 6 years ago, the Solstice festival is the event that we look forward to most each year. It is distinctly Vancouver, a truer expression of joy and freedom cannot be found anywhere. The most memorable time was 2010 when my daughter was 2. We walked in the procession and saw the fire dancers which was spectacular, as it is every year. But when the Carnival Band began playing in the gym at the community Center, Zoey jumped up and said 'I have to dance!'-- she was the littlest child out there dancing with the rest of the revelers and she couldn't have been happier. There were volunteers looking after the little ones so that they felt safe and we were able to stay on the sidelines and watch the whole thing unfold. It is a memory that I will ALWAYS cherish, my brave little girl dancing with abandon, getting swept up in the moment. I can't explain to you the joy we felt.

There have been countless other moments before and since that I could speak about but none so special as this one. It's because of this that the Solstice festival is now a part of our Christmas tradition. Thank you for all of your good work!

Sheri, Mike and Zoey Briggs
February 10, 2013

I went, as usual, primarily to the Roundhouse. There is a spiritual tone to the offerings there that I like. The fire jugglers were REALLY good! And the aerial dancers I love. My favourite though is the trance room, with the big lantern flowers and trance music. The cards were a great addition, something to contemplate while trancing.

I skipped over to Sun Yat Sen late, as I wanted to catch the cool lanterns, the show of antique silk ones was very cool, and the show of old photos of Gold Mountain I had wanted to see, so was nice to taste it then.

Don't really have suggestions for improvement, it seems to get better and smoother each year.

Suzanne Vetterli
January 23, 2013

A belated thank you for organizing the 2011 Winter Solstice event at the Roundhouse Community Center which I enjoyed very much, especially the world fusion music of Naad performance in the Secret Lantern Garden. My friend and I were really fascinated by the music and would love to hear more of it. Could you please let me know where I can find the performers? It would be much appreciated!

Jaye Weng
January 14, 2012

I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the candle labyrinth at the Britannia Community Centre last week. It was my first time attending, and it was beautiful! I am definitely committed to going next year. I was surprised and impressed that you held so many of those events all over the City- wonderful! So much work!

Also, while we were waiting to get in, someone showed us a beautiful little 2012 calendar that the Society had published, but alas, I didn't have enough cash on me at the time to purchase it. Where can I get one now, before they're all sold out?!

Kia Rich
December 27, 2011

I live in Quebec City but had the chance to stay in Vancouver for 2 years and experienced your wonderful Lantern Festival! There is nothing like this here in Quebec City but 2 friends and I would like to start a Festival this year. Do you have any information/recommendations that you could pass on?

Genevieve Tousignant
September 24, 2011

I'm writing to say how much I enjoyed the lanterns at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden on December 21st, 2010. In a culture that is somewhat disconnected from nature, it is so welcome to be able to celebrate the solstice. No matter what background, I think your event has an appeal for all people. We al l experience the darkest night of the year, and recognizing it with other people helps get me through the long winter. I'm happy that I could go to your Garden and feel something magical. And that it was accessible even though I don't have much money.

Olivia Hughes
December 24, 2010

Thank you sooo much Naomi for the opportunity to have such a beautiful place to tell my stories. It was really well received and I had such a great and inspiring time. I took part in the Labyrinth there as well, when I found it appropriate.. I could have stayed too long 8).. I loved it soo much. Well I hope the New Year brings you much prosperity and joy. Please contact me again if it pleases you.

Victoria Buffalo Robe
June 17, 2009

I am just writing to say how valuable for our community that we consider the Secret Lantern Society and its winter solstice events. To us they are an opportunity to connect with fellow members of the community that we otherwise do not get to connect with in any meaningful way. This is a time to remember that we live together with nature and the planet. It is a time to see old, middle-aged, young people together. It is free so everyone can participate.

There are almost no other such community moments. We love it and wait for it every year. We feel that this is an important civic activity that the province, city and other organizations should take seriously as a community-building event.

Laura Janara and Bruce Baum
January 4, 2008

Heart-felt thanks to all of you who helped create such a magical, festive solstice in our community centres! Coal Harbour CC was stunningly beautiful, and I thoroughly enjoyed Give Peace a Chant. My only disappointment was that I left the Chant early to get to WECC in time for the last hour is ice- skating, only to learn it was stopped an hour ahead of schedule. Given the weather, I quite understand. Many thanks again. I am already looking forward to next year!

Sequoia Thorn Lundy
December 22, 2008

I just wanted to say thank you for such a wonderful evening at the Winter Solstice last week. We were at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden and it was thoroughly enchanting and very well put together and organized. We had a great time and will definitely be back next year!

We drove up from Bellingham for the event and it was worth the drive (and border wait!).

Sally Fast
December 29, 2007

Hi there, I was with the group of canoers doing the Solstice paddle around Granville Island the night of the festival. After taking some pics of the fantastic dance your group held I was asked to share some of the photos when I could. I apologize I am not including more but I took so many and all need processing which requires more time than I have at this moment however, here are a few to share with your staff and participants that should show what a smashing success it was.

Andrew Allan
December 23, 2007

My family visits Vancouver every holiday season from Moscow Idaho. Secret Lantern Festival is our favorite event! There is nothing like it in the States. We love the diverse cultural traditions at play, the wonderful opportunities to participate in the magic of the night and the great intermingling of all kinds of different kids, adults, seekers and celebrators. We have made lanterns, walked in processions and labyrinths, chanted, and just marveled at the wonder of it all. I am so sorry to hear about your funding constraints! I can't think of an event which does more to reinforce the community spirit, or one that is more worthy of funding.

Peggy Jenkins
December 12, 2007

I am looking forward to taking my grandchildren again this year to the procession to Chinatown and am disappointed to read you have lost some of your funding for this very worthwhile family event. My grandchildren are pre-schoolers and I believe this is a wonderful event for them to join and hopefully we will be able to join for many more years to come and it will become a family tradition. Vancouver is such a great city for children to grow up in with all the various cultures and it is so necessary for us to be able to enjoy activities which we can afford and which they can enjoy.

Thank you for all you do to make the festival possible and I hope this e-mail will help you in persuading your funders to give you more next year. I, like many, am on limited income and the kind of event that you produce is vital for our family.

Sheila Dunnachie
December 11, 2007

I have lived in the West End at the edge of Coal Harbour for the last seven years. The ONE event in December that I simply do not miss is the Winter Solstice Lantern Festival. I am so in love with this festival for many reasons. First, it is a true community celebration. People come of all ages and have fun together on what is otherwise a dark and depressing night.

Second, it is a unique event in the West End/Coal Harbour area that makes the best use of our city! To have musical groups on both ends: to see one concert at one location, take a walk through our gorgeous park, meet in the middle with the other group (where I almost always know someone), sing together then continue to the other end to hear another concert, is just the perfect night. I have also made lanterns on two years and found it very moving to walk with a lantern as part of the procession.

Third, I love the community spirit in preparing the celebration: I went one year to help at the Roundhouse and just felt so GOOD to be part of the preparations. It is art, community, and a celebration of each person's love.

The most important thing for me, however, is the labyrinth. I LOVE the labyrinth installations. For me, it is a time to deeply think about what went right and wrong this year/ where I met challenges and how I dealt with them. I think about how I'd like to grow and what I most need to tell myself moving into the new year to make me a stronger person. It takes me hours to go through the labyrinth. While I'm there, I marvel at how wonderful Vancouver is and how many people go through the labyrinth in their own way. It is just a great experience. I am happy there will still be one labyrinth at the Roundhouse/ but the truth is that it was already SO CROWDED last year, that it's sad that there will only be one.

I do a LOT of stuff in this city: the bike fest, folk fest, film fest/ fringe/ etc, but the Winter Solstice Lantern Festival is one of the few things that I tell everyone about with no reservations that they'll have a good time. It has always been a great event/ with something for and I truly hope that next year you can open up Coal Harbor and West End again and have another great event for our community.

Christina Wolf
December 10, 2007

Thank you so much for the Winter Solstice Lantern Festival of 2007. I'm writing because, after I bought one of the beautiful handmade lanterns at the False Creek Community Centre (my thanks to the volunteer who made it), I didn't have enough change left to become a member. How may I do that?

I am a New Canadian, and, although I arrived in 2004, this was my first participation in the Winter Solstice Lantern Festival. For sure I won't miss any of them from now on, may they continue for many years!

I loved waiting at my gathering point (the Coast Guard Station) with lantern lit, my excitement hearing the drummers approach ahead of floating lights, shadowed people moving in their glow, the welcoming cheers, the leaders' costumes, the many kinds of homemade lanterns, the many children -- and our procession moving slowly enough that they were comfortable -- the joyful freedom (echoes under Burrard Bridge, hearing our footsteps as we passed the windows of the apartment building's parking garage, clapping our gloves and mittens to make the sound of rain at the pyramid fountain, chanting mournfully "no snow, noooo snooow," our wild madrigal for the people in the condo complex, seeing their silhouettes coming to the glass doors of their balconies to watch and listen) and then entering Granville Island, our lanterns becoming footlights for the Carnival Band, the sudden torches and chanting, and then being led to the base of the grassy hill for the breathtaking fire sculpture and fire performance. I've never seen anything like it. I was gasping and whooping in spite of myself. I loved the welcome to the community centre with its lanterns and strings of lights on the floor, the variety of high-quality cultural events inside, including what would enrapture the children.

I loved that the festival drew in people of all ages and cultures and made us all a part of it; the mystery, richness, diversity, breadth, color, drama, music, dancing, procession, and fire. It was clearly organized and structured, but also intimate and informal, primal and primitive. It incorporated just enough risk to be exciting, along with trust that we could take care of ourselves and one another. All this was to me very Canadian, most especially celebrating both darkness and light, cold and warmth, in this beautiful northern country of ours.

I signed up to be a volunteer for next year's Festival, but I would like also to become a member and make an additional donation. I have enjoyed all the diverse, 'round-the-seasons cultural events I have attended in my three years in this beautiful city and feel very fortunate to live here. But The Winter Solstice Lantern Festival engaged me to a depth that I will always remember. I would like to help make it happen in the future to share the joy.

Jody Aliesan
December 26, 2007

Solstice Night at Roundhouse was very moving for me. I was one of the labyrinth hosts, and found the experience immensely profound - and I was, literally, blown away by the scope, beauty, and civic elegance of the whole solstice festival! Next year I hope to be outside, to see the torch parades and fire dancers, which a friend of mine said had her bursting into tears no fewer than FOUR TIMES during the course of the evening!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing some timeless joy back into modern urban life.

Kerric Harvey
January 25, 2005

It's hard to realize this was the 11th year for 'Naomi's Parade' (as I always call the Winter Solstice Lantern Procession) In 1994, Naomi Singer decided that her Artist-in-Residence project at False Creek Community Centre would be to create a new winter community celebration. Clearly communities relish a chance to come together in a simple, homely gathering, for the procession and the charming entertainment that follows.

It's such fun to see how inventive people are. Some carry quite beautiful creations they've made, but just as many carry bought lanterns, camping lanterns and an amazing variety of kitchen implements adapted for the purpose.

It's lovely to see all ages out together, from babes in strollers, to teenagers, middle-agers and old-agers.

Naomi gradually achieved her dream of having processions circling the waterfront as this last year they took place from the West End, Coal Harbour, Roundhouse, Strathcona Community Centres and Science World.

On behalf of the hundreds of people who look forward to the event each December I want to congratulate Naomi Singer for her vision, her persistence, and the enthusiasm which recruits the army of volunteers needed to make it all happen for the rest of us who just show up to enjoy ourselves in good spirits. Thank you Naomi.

Beryl Wilson
January 2005

This year’s solstice parade/party at Granville Island was fantastic! Without a doubt, the best part of the evening was the Japanese drummers. They were AWESOME!!!! My five year old son and his 75-year old grandma were mesmerized by the performance. We talked about it the whole way home and two days later we're still talking about it! My second favorite thing was the flaming horse heads - very cool ! Thank you for organizing such a great event.

Bob Glilly
December 23, 2004

Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed seeing your vision of the Solstice Tree and other Wonderments come to fruition in such a beautiful and dynamic way.

I know it is no small task to make so many parts and particulars come together for such a complex whole, but you did it with grand splendor! Thanks so much for letting me be a small part. Please let know when there are going to be other opportunities for the Secret Lantern Society to shine! Happy New Year to You with more light!

BQ (The Banana Queen, my nom de plume)

Madeleine Thomson
January 1, 2002

Thank you for the wonderful opportunity you gave us to be a part of the solstice celebrations at Roundhouse. Our dance group does a lot of performances throughout the year, but there are always only a few that unique. We experienced a well receiving crowd, warmth from the organizers, and lots of good energy and positive karma in the air. Please thank everyone on our behalf especially Brenda, Heather and Ali for their hard work, professionalism yet a unique easy going attitude.

I will be looking forward to working with you again on future projects.

Mojdeh Shahriari
December 23, 2001