A week ago (already) was Seasons of New England and the Uralla Lantern Parade. It was a fabulous day with incredibly fortunate weather: clear sunny skies although rain the day before meant the playing fields were a bit squishy. This is the third Uralla Lantern Parade we've seen, with a similar vibe to last year as the parade is held at the Seasons of New England festival rather than as a stand-alone event. Seasons was much better attended this year than last year, and there were more people at the parade as well. My photos of the lantern parade aren't as good this year as two years ago--I only brought my phone and not the real camera. This year was a ocean theme -- mostly fish, marine mammals and seagulls.
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| These lantern seagulls were chasing a lantern chip |
This story has a bit of a sad epilogue; it was a wet week in Queensland and northern New South Wales as the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie swept in and dumped massive amounts of rain. We had a wet 30mm day in Uralla and the Dumaresq Creek in Armidale was flooded so most of the roads getting through the center of town were closed, but it was light rain down here compared to further north. The lanterns are stored in Lismore, which had record-breaking flooding, and I have heard they have been all destroyed.
Beautiful but sad! I hope they can rebuild the lanterns for next year.
ReplyDeleteMe too, I hope they can rebuild them, it'd be such a shame to lose the tradition! I recently found out though that not all of the lanterns were destroyed, as the possum stayed in Uralla (it is living in the brewery right now.)
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