Lanternfest

Friday, November 29 felt like a holiday, and as it turned out it was, though not due to it being Thanksgiving on the US of A side of the international dateline.

The day’s festivities began with an end-of-semester party for the TAFE class (community college) for adults with developmental disabilities that I had been attending.

Ann and I walked up the hill two blocks to the Warrnambool Bowls Club where the celebratory luncheon was being held. We spotted a threesome of squawking magpies in a tree on the way, a good omen.

The Warrnambool Bowls Club is very much like the Chico Elks Lodge. Many community events and group gatherings are held there. There were about sixty people in attendance, in a private room on one side of a bar. The other side of the bar opened up to the regular dining facility over looking the lawn bowling area.

One of the beauties of being here is opening up to new and different paces, and slowing down to enjoy the places. Today was a good example. We all had to order our meal at the bar, and get drinks there too. The calm graciousness of the one staff person taking orders was a special gift to behold. She was so attentive, respectful, and patient while taking orders and payment from customers for whom such simple tasks were not so simple.

I had to first go through the inner critiquing voice of “I can’t believe how slow and inefficient this all is,” until I had the aha moment of just being there.

Ann and I shared a table with Michael and his mother. On my first day of class Michael made me a name tag to pin to my shirt. He is twenty-five years old, and as I found out today, he lives at home with his parents. Michael also gave me a Christmas card at the last class. He is very social, and likes to give cards. At the event he took down fifty-three names to make sure his card list was complete.

Michael does not hear well, and his speech can be difficult to understand at times. He is almost always “on,” meaning talking full bore, repeating and questioning those around him. He is very expressive, with a smile and eyes that light up easily and often communicate more to me than what his words may be.

After eating, certificates of completion were handed out. Interestingly, the only “speech” given was by a student who at class almost always sat by himself, and did not like anyone to invade his personal space. He asked for the microphone, thanked the teachers and classmates, and said how he was looking forward to next semester. So am I.

After the certificate formalities, there was a dance. Highlights there were a group retro dance performance to the tune of Celebrate, a lovely couple who slow danced every song together, and dancing with Ann.

At the close of the event, Michael’s mom asked Ann and me if we would like to go with her and Michael to Tarrington that night for Lanternfest. Hmmm, wonder what that is, so “yes” was the way to find out.

Tarrington, population 90 per the tourist map, is a rural town about a hundred kilometers north. It is a community of German heritage, centered physically and socially around a Lutheran Church built in the early 1800’s.

Lanternfest is to celebrate a different commencement, that of the start of the Advent Season, and the light of Christmas. In the old days floating paper lanterns with candles would be set aloft at dark. Perhaps due to environmental concerns, and no doubt even more so due to great risk of bush fire, a procession of hand held battery lit lanterns is now the culminating event.

It was really just like a school fair and carnival, with a touch of Octoberfest mixed in, and of course a generous pinch of old world Lutheran Church.

We got there just as the first of several church tours was being offered, so we joined in.  The docent leading the tour was the wife of the great great grandson of the church’s founding pastor. The church has three bells, imported from Germany around 1810 at the cost of $12,000. A lot of money back then. They are hand operated with rope pulls, and still serve to call folks to church, and to alert the community to local emergencies.

At the front of the church was a rainbow display of cascading fabric.  I asked the docent if it represented the church’s support for gender and sexual equity. “No” she replied, it was decoration for a presentation the church youth were to put on later that evening with each color symbolizing an attribute of the light of Jesus that all comes together as one ray of hope and salvation.

Outside things were more down to earth, with apple bobbing, sponge tossing, and bake sales all drawing a crowd. But the best line of all was that for the grilled sausages with sauerkraut, with “American” mustard too! (i.e., of the yellow mild variety, that is in fact labeled as American mustard).

Old school apple bobbing

 After a very satisfying sausage session, Ann and I toured the adjoining Lutheran school, which made this an official sabbatical trip too.

Back outside there was Maypole dancing, a beer stein holding competition, and a variety of games to play.

Check out the real competitors in the background

Beer stein shuffleboard

 

As it started getting dark, Ann and I went back in the church to warm up and to watch the children’s advent presentation. We met up with Michael and his mom who were also warming and watching. Afterwards, outside as the lantern procession was about to start, Michael and mom were still cold and tired, and ready to go home. So were we. 

We made a drive through town to see the display of decorated hay bales, and then doubled back for the return home. As it turned out we also got to see the procession set off as we headed back to Warrnambool.

One of the many decorated hay bale sculptures

It was a day full of wonderful light. The setting sun on the church, and the evening clouds, were quite spectacular. But it was the delight of new friends that really lit things up.