Golden specks of light shimmer along the canal, illuminating the water and reflecting against the dark of the night and the city lights. For an hour, about 3,000 Water Lantern Festival attendees set their lanterns afloat on the Indianapolis Central Canal next to Military Park. Each lantern has something different written or drawn on it: goals, reminders, remembrances of family or friends who have died, doodles, and more.
The festival is a national event that occurs in cities across the U.S. during which people of all ages come together, enjoy live music and food trucks, and decorate water lanterns to release on a river, pond, or canal. The festival is environmentally friendly, the lanterns composed of a wooden base with four small wooden rods to hold up the rice paper and an LED light that sits in the middle. Buoy lines are also placed into the water to collect the lanterns at the end.
“Everyone comes to the Water Lantern Festival for a different reason,” Alec Zaitz, Water Lantern Festival event coordinator says. “There’s people there that are just there for a fun date. There’s people there that come to mourn the loss of a loved one. There’s some people that come as they’re setting new goals in life, as a refresh, a restart.” The goal is to create a positive environment for people to express themselves through releasing a lantern onto the water.
Lucy Villa, 75, is at the festival with her friend and “daughter” Susan Truelove, 58. They have been friends for 26 years and go everywhere together, whether it’s attending the lantern festival or road-tripping. “My almost daughter, I love her so much,” Villa says. “That is the only reason I’m here today.”
Villa has decorated the four sides of her lantern with flowers, hearts, and the U.S. flag. “The flag of your beautiful country,” she says.
Truelove not only came to the festival for the warm weather and the sense of community but also for the company of her “Columbiana mama.”
“You know, she’s my second mama,” Truelove says. “It means everything spending time with her. She’s like my bestie.”
Each side of her lantern contains an optimistic message written in black ink: hope, love, joy, and peace. The words symbolize her desire for a more tender and compassionate society.
Villa and Truelove savor seeing the happy faces of the festival attendees, the lightening of spirits, the sense of joy and encouragement.
Another duo with a friendship lasting over 30 years—Tammy Blakley, 65, and Amber Stanley, 61—lay on a blanket in the middle of a grass field with their colorfully designed lanterns.
Shades of yellow, orange, and purple make up a sun on one side of Blakley’s lantern, while a moon makes up another. Blakley has written, “Let Your Light Shine,” above the sun, representing her business, Blake and Blakley Production, which has the motto, “Let the Light Shine Down On You.”
The third side lists the names of five of Blakley’s friends dating back to grade school. The fourth side lists the qualities she has strived to cultivate in herself throughout her life: love, kindness, bravery, and strength. “Because God teaches us to love one another, and these attitudes touch upon all these things,” she says.
Blakley is also there to support Stanley, whose mother recently passed away. “It means a lot to me just to be here to come and support Amber and allow us to spend time together,” Blakley says.
Stanley is there because she believes her mom would’ve enjoyed it, but she also wants to reflect on life while being surrounded by like-minded people and spread her love and kindness to others. “They’re all strangers because they’re not my friends yet,” Stanley says. “I could make friends with all of these people.” Two years in remission from stage 4 ovarian cancer, she feels lucky to be there.
Her lantern expresses her sense of hope and zeal for life. “I love rainbows. I love color,” she says. “I love to be bright and vibrant and color outside the lines.” And color outside the lines she has.
A fluorescent yellow flower takes up most of the empty white space on one side of her lantern, while another side has a green-colored sun with pink rays. A third side is dedicated to her mom, with the writing, “MOM … I hope you see this. Love & miss you!” and Stanley’s seven grandkids’ names below. “She never gave up on me when she could’ve many times,” Stanley says. “Just like God never gave up on me.” The last side has a green peace sign with a message about doing what you love.
Others have chosen to decorate their lanterns as a team. Zachary Verbarg, 26, Riley Chambers, 25, and Audrey Bannec, 27, sit in lawn chairs passing around their lanterns so each can contribute to the others’ with artwork and messages.
Verbarg, a graphic designer, incorporates 3D geometric designs similar to the doodles he once did on his math papers to signify how he got his start as an artist.
When the time eventually comes to place his lantern on the water, he doesn’t want to let it go because of the effort he put into it. He jokes, “I was thinking about putting my name and my address so it could be returned, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
As a nature lover who has visited 12 out of Indiana’s 24 state parks, he enjoys the festival’s natural setting in the midst of downtown.
He, Chambers, and Bannec are the type of friends who are able to make sudden plans, which they did when they decided to attend the festival after seeing an Instagram post about it the night before.
Chambers’ lantern has a special message for her mom, who died when she was 15. “I put that I miss her and that I love her,” she says. “She’s just the person that was able to provide me the comfort, and strength, and knowledge that I needed.” Now, Verbarg and Bannec are her “everything,” the people she can rely on.
Bannec—unable to decide what message to put on her lantern—has simply added cute flowers, squiggles, and dots to hers.
Another trio who found the event through social media includes Christopher Rost, 41, who has been fascinated with lanterns since he was a best man in a wedding about 20 years ago during which the bride and groom released sky lanterns. Rost invited his friend Brian Hedger, 41, and Hedger’s partner.
Rost has colored half of his lantern with the rainbow pride flag. “As a gay man, I think you’re constantly evolving, and growing, and figuring out who you are,” he says. He continues to learn more about himself and embrace who he is. The other half contains an uplifting message for himself and others, as well as a reminder to be thankful and love each other.
Though Rost and Hedger have known each other since high school, the festival is a way to appreciate their rekindled friendship and release good energy.
Hedger’s lantern has a different design on each side: the flag of Ecuador, representing where his partner is from; the U.S. flag, representing his own home country; his partner’s and Rost’s names; and the names of his three kids. “I wanted to include them and have something simple. I can’t wait to see it go down the canal here,” he says.
Though this is just a fraction of the attendees out of an estimated 3,000, each of their lanterns is a meaningful and unique memento. As the sun sets, they release the lanterns onto the water and let their messages be carried on its gentle current. Relaxing music plays over the speakers as some sit in silence, some embrace each other, some cry, and some smile, and the canal sparkles in the night.
