The Jacksonville Memorial Light Festival

To all who have followed us and participated in the first two years of the Jacksonville Memorial Light Festival, we appreciate your support and have been so privileged to share in honoring your loved ones. We regret that we will not be able to host a 2016 event but we hope very much to return in the future and make this beautiful event a Jacksonville tradition. In the meantime, we invite you to continue the tradition on your own with this helpful DIY guide for building your own lanterns. Please remember that for the safety of wildlife and health of our waterways, lanterns should never be set into natural bodies of water unless you have a way to retrieve them afterward:

Best wishes for peace and loving memories as you honor your loved ones this Memorial Day.

How to Make Japanese Floating Lanterns | eHow Each summer in Japan, citizens release floating paper lanterns into local rivers and lakes. The lanterns are decorated with special names and symbols and dedicated to late loved ones. This ceremony is called Toro Nagashi and it takes place over three days that serve the same purpose as American Memo...

We needed to say thank you again. We've received a very warm response to the event on Monday evening. Thank you to Goliath, Dori & Sebastian, Khyra, Richard, Tehila, Tahgel, Suzanne, and so many other who helped us with the event.

Great coverage

New local tradition honors fallen soldiers Each glowing light floating on the St.

One writer meditates beautifully on toro nagashi, or memorial lanterns, and other Japanese ways of considering those who are gone.

After Father's Death, A Writer Learns How 'The Japanese Say Goodbye' Lost in a deep depression, Marie Mutsuki Mockett visited a temple owned by her mother's family near Fukushima. There, she found traditions and ways of thought that helped her work through her grief.

So appreciative of the support this idea is getting. Thank you Beth Cravey for the follow-up article:

http://members.jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/400721/beth-cravey/2014-05-28/healing-memorial-day-lantern-launch-be-annual

'Healing' Memorial Day lantern launch to be annual for Jacksonville The enthusiasm of people who attended the inaugural Jacksonville Memorial Light Festival, held on Memorial Day in Riverside, led organizers to seek volunteers for a larger event next year.

Thank you to Christina Kelso of The Florida Times-Union for this lovely photo slideshow of Monday night's event. If any of you attended and have photos you'd like to share, we invite you to post them here on the page!

Jacksonville Memorial Light Festival A comfortable crowd gathered along the St. Johns River at Yacht Basin Park to remember and honor loved ones lost at the first-ever Jacksonville Memorial Light Festival. Attendees decorated paper lanterns with personal messages of remembrance and released them into the river, where they glimmered on…

Photos from our inaugural event held on May 26, 2014 at Yacht Basin Park.

2015 Jacksonville Memorial Light Festival: Volunteer Sign-Up

We need volunteers of all kinds. Join us to make next year's event even more special!