Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden Winter Light Festival brings Japanese culture to Lethbridge.
In its fifth year of operation, the festival features music, entertainment and of course, elaborate light displays.
This year there were over 120,000 lights on display around the garden to show how Japanese people tend to celebrate the holidays.
Melanie Berdusco, marketing and event manager for the Japanese gardens, says people often confuse the light festival with a Christmas festival.
“In Japan they don’t typically celebrate Christmas, at least not in the way that we do here in North America, but winter light festivals are huge over there. It’s such a popular activity in Japan to do because it’s something that lights up the night in winter. You have these long dark nights, so why not set up some lights just to bring some joy and spread some joy to everybody.”
The Japanese Winter Light Festival is back for the fifth straight year and features over 120,000 lights. The festival runs until Jan. 30 at Nikka Yuko Japanese Gardens.
The festival runs throughout December and January and celebrates different Japanese holidays that happen during those months.
“We had our coming-of-age ceremony that would have been celebrated in Japan and we also celebrate Setsubun which is the changing of seasons holiday,” says Berdusco.
Setsubun happens on Feb. 2, after the Winter Light Festival ends, so they instead celebrate the holiday on the final night.
Berdusco says the celebration is very fun to participate in and is a unique experience.
“Someone will dress up as an oni (or a demon) and you throw soy nuts at them and that’s a way to banish evil spirits and bring in new spirits for the new season.”
Berdusco also says they are happy they get the opportunity to spread Japanese culture to Lethbridge.
“We just try to expose people to Japanese culture and some of the different things that they celebrate. It’s different than what we might see normally in North America, so I think it’s really exciting that we can expose people to that.”
Putting on the event this year wasn’t always easy, with COVID-19 constantly changing restrictions that had to be followed.
Berdusco says they were lucky the festival is an outdoor event and the main complication was changing how tickets were sold.
“In previous years people were able to show up by admission and come into the garden. This year you had to pre-purchase your tickets in order to get in, that way we know how many people are coming in per time slot. So, it was a lot of getting that message out in November ahead of time, so people were prepared and weren’t disappointed by showing up and realizing that it was completely sold out and they couldn’t come in.”
Keagan O’Brien, a worker at the festival, says for the most part the public has been very understanding of the restrictions that have been put in place, but some people can be difficult.
“We want to make sure people follow regulations and everything, we try our best. We want it to be as safe an experience for everyone as physically possible, but we know that not everyone is going to listen.”
Despite COVID-19, Berdusco says the festival has been a great success and they are proud of the work they’ve done to ensure the public’s safety.
“We’ve had already 15,000 people through our gate and had no outbreaks and no contact tracing that’s been traced back to the gardens. We’re very proud that we’ve been able to manage that very well.”
For those still wanting to attend the event, the festival runs until Jan. 30. Tickets are available for pre-purchase online or by calling the garden at 403-328-3511. Tickets can also be purchased by phoning the Enmax Centre at 403-329-7328.
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