Sunday, December 20, 2020

Festival of Northern Lights

 Every year at this time of year, for over 30 years, Owen Sound has featured its Festival of Northern Lights, an outdoor display of Christmas lights that people can drive or walk past.  Because it's outdoors, and most people view it while driving, it went on in conformity with the pandemic rules.  The other day we were in Owen Sound late and went to see them.

We started by picking up a sandwich and hot chocolate for early dinner and drove downtown (more on that hot chocolate later).  It made it a lot easier that the new bridge on 10th Street (immediately beyond the crosswalk) had just opened.  The city chose to name it the Gitche Namewikwedong Bridge.

    To quote the Sun Times, the local newspaper, "City officials say the name, which means Great Sturgeon Bay in Anishinaabemowin, will acknowledge Owen Sound’s Indigenous history – the city is within traditional Saugeen Ojibway Territory and was named Gitche Namewikwedong before contact by European settlers – but will also be an important gesture towards nation-to-nation reconciliation and restoring a relationship of respect and friendship with Indigenous people."

The oldest part of the light display extends along the river for two blocks downtown, and it's very popular with locals.

There are a large number of figures, of which some are painted on boards and floodlit.  There are also two Christmas trees; 

Some are small and some are big and complex.

The second Christmas tree.

And a happy dragon.  More to come.



13 comments:

  1. Always nice seeing lighting displays to lift one's spirits.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!
    It's about time.

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  2. I love seeing all the pretty lights, making some cute animals, especially that cute dragon! :-)

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  3. They are all beautiful, a lot of work to design and set up, and in the darkness, shine with all their glory.Hot Chocolate???

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  4. I really love the sort of trees made up entirely of lights. Thank you for the tour.

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  5. Great to hear that some of the old names (the proper names) are being restored here and there. In the UK the Ordnance Survey map makers asked local people for the names of features and many old words have been preserved in this way. The lights are just what we need to brighten these dark mid-winter days.

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  6. A nice way to see outside Christmas lights from the warm interior of one's own vehicle. And Christmas music on the radio.

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  7. i love displays like this, pretty, safe and from the car!!

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  8. Thanks for sharing this. It was fun to see them and the trees too.

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  9. Nice -- a lot better than the displays in a lot of larger communities. Wish we could get up your way to see the Northern Lights.

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  10. Love Christmas decorations. Everyone does it slightly differently!

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  11. Beautiful lights, aren't they? It shows a difference but doesn't diminish when I think of Paisley's Festival of Lights in comparison of small town, large town. :)

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