The document lists various light festivals, celebrations, and events that take place around the world, including the Niagara Falls Winter Festival of Lights in Canada, Christmas markets in Germany, the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and lantern festivals in China, Korea, and Japan. Holiday traditions from a wide range of cultures are represented from North America, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia.
From the beginning of November until the first week of January, the Niagara Falls Winter Festival of Lights is a spectacular lightshow that includes an illuminated 5-km route of lighted displays, fireworks over the falls and more, including concerts and children's performances.
The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is typically lit the week after Thanksgiving. The Christmas tree that adorns Rockefeller Center is typically a Norway Spruce. The minimum requirement is that the tree be 65 feet tall and 35 feet wide, however manager of Rockefeller Center gardens prefers the tree be between 75 and 90 feet tall and proportionally wide. Norway Spruce that grow in forests don't typically reach these proportions, so the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree tends to be one that was ornamentally planted in someone's front or back yard. There is no compensation offered in exchange for the tree, other than the pride of having donated the tree that appears in Rockefeller Center. Over five miles of lights are used to decorate the tree every year. Only the lights and the star decorate the tree. The tree is recycled and the 3 tons of mulch are donated to the Boy Scouts. The largest portion of the trunk is donated to the U.S. Equestrian team in New Jersey to use as an obstacle jump.
Logan County Courthouse, Paris, Arkansas Fort Smith, Arkansas Blytheville, Arkansas Hot Springs, Arkansas: Lights on the Landscape at Garvan Woodland Gardens with its more than 1.7 million lights sprinkled across 15 beautifully sculpted acres.
Medellin, Colombia and its spectacular holiday light extravaganza. This Andean city has dazzled audiences for decades with its colorful Christmas displays - among the world's most impressive.
Christmas Markets
Christmas lights are displayed on a house on December 1, 2008 in Melksham, England. The householder Alex Goodwind - who says he does it to raise money for charity after his mother died a few years ago - starts planning lights in July and has spent 3,000 GBP this year alone on the lights that are now estimated to be worth 30,000 GBP. Last year the bill for electricity was 700 GBP and the house had to have an uprated electricity supply installed to cope with the additional power needed. Donations from visitors to the spectacle raised over 2,000 GBP to local hospice Dorothy House.
Festival of Light: Loi Krathong (loy-kruh-thong) Festival in Thailand This holiday is celebrated in Thailand in November each year."Loy" means "to float" and a "Krathong" is a lotus-shaped vessel made of banana leaves. The Krathong usually contains a candle, three joss-sticks, some flowers and coins. The festival starts at night when there is a full moon in the sky. People carry their Krathongs to the nearby rivers. After lighting candles and making a wish, they place the Krathongs on the water and let them drift away. People are offering thanks to the Goddess of water. It is believed that the Krathongs carry away bad luck. The wishes that people make for the new year will start. It is the time to be joyful and happy as the sufferings are floated away.
About 27,000 lanterns light up the nights of Seoul for the Seoul Lantern Festival 2010. Held for the first time last year, the annual Seoul Lantern Festival presents lanterns of the world’s countries.
Kobe Luminarie is a light festival held in Kobe , Japan , every December since 1995 and commemorating the Great Hanshin earthquake of that year. The lights were donated by the Italian Government and the installation itself is produced by Valerio Festi and Hirokazu Imaoka. Lights are kept up for about two weeks and turned on for a few hours each evening. Each light is individually hand-painted. Major streets in the vicinity are closed to auto traffic during these hours to allow pedestrians to fill the streets and enjoy the lights. It is viewed by about three to five million people each year..
Osaka Hikari Renaissance (Renaissance of Light) Lights illuminate the Miotsukushi promenade on river-surrounded Nakanoshima Park, creating a brilliant spectacle of winter celebration in Osaka. The event features a number of "Harmony of Light and Water" such as the 'River Light Curtain', 'Wall Tapestry' at the Nakanoshima Library and various illumination shows.
A light art work by artist and musician Brian Eno is projected onto the Sydney Opera House during the opening night of the Smart Light Sydney Festival as part of the Vivid Sydney Festival on May 26, 2009 in Sydney, Australia. The Smart Light Sydney Festival is a Vivid Sydney initiative that aims to bring colour and light to Sydney during Winter.