hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Winter Solstice Festival in Kensington Market, Toronto 2013
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Winter Solstice Festival in Kensington Market, Toronto 2013
Toronto - The Winter Solstice celebration in Kensington Market has been a tradition in Toronto for 24 years. Winter Solstice (sometimes called Saturnalia or Yule) is the pagan festival that ancient peoples of Europe celebrated on the shortest day of the year.
I had been to the Festival of Lights in Kensington a couple of times – once in the ‘90s, and once a few years ago, but had never experienced the whole parade. This year, I went with the intention of staying the entire night (or at least, until it ended). I didn’t quite make it, but saw enough to make me want to go again next year. Founded by Red Pepper Spectacle Arts, and Ida Carnevali, founder and director of the original Festival Of Lights parade in Kensington Market in 1987, “this carnival parade of giant puppets, firebreathers, stiltwalkers and samba musicians was created as a way of beckoning the return of the sun on the longest night of the year.” The music, shadow puppets, and other entertainment for the parade is provided by a revolving cast of musicians and actors, including the Samba Squad, Clay & Paper Theatre, EagleHeart Drummers and Singers, Spirit Wind, Gaa Dibaatjimat Ngashi, Tumivut Youth Shelter, Maracatu Nunca Antes, Darbazi Choir, Circle-Sing, Shadowland Theatre, Native Men’s Residence, Richard Underhill and the Kensington Horns, youth from the Association for Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts, and the Island Arhythmics. And the denizens of Kensington Market participate with glee. The parade began with a muster on Augusta Street at the corner of Nassau, where the giants puppets and bands gathered to form a cordon around a ladder set up so that Richard Underhill (of the Shuffle Demons and the composer of 'Kensington Suite') could begin the fire-ceremonies with a rousing tune played on an unidentifiable woodwind instrument, set on fire by the stiltwalker/torchbearer while Richard was playing it. Next, a lady clown dressed in velvet climbed the ladder to show us how a real professional eats fire, and the parade was on. Wending its way down Augusta, the parade included a huge loon puppet, a giant bear puppet, two sun-garbed stiltwalkers, ladies dressed in gypsy-princess rags, a policewoman with an oversized hat and epaulets, hobbyhorses, and lots of people in ordinary clothing with beautiful paper lanterns. Unfortunately, this year it was raining, so our candles, and the lanterns, got rather wet, but every year people create whimsical and lovely lanterns for the parade at a pay-what-you -can workshop at the beginning of December hosted by Red Pepper Spectacle Arts at the Cecil Street Steelworkers Hall. As the parade proceeded through Kensington, we saw that musicians, performers and shadow puppet tents had been set up all along the route. A sampling of performances included: a clown kazoo band playing Christmas songs, conducted with a flyswatter; a couple of young women reciting nonsense poetry; two musicians wildly playing guitar and banjo in front of a projection of a roaring fire; a shadow puppet theatre projection of the Great Mother with her “baby” swimming in her womb; another shadow puppet theatre projection of a giant and a little man at a table (Jack the Giant Killer?); a bevy of shrill ladies with beaks singing light opera; a drummer in a fox mask; and many more. One the really great things about this parade is how much everyone enjoys participating - I haven’t seen so many smiling faces on the street in Toronto in some time. I wish we’d had time to slow down to watch all of the performances, but as the parade continued down the street it was leaving us farther and farther behind, so we somewhat reluctantly followed the pounding of the drums down to Alexandra Park. As the crowd gathered in the park, and performers gathered in front of the backstop the rain began to pour down in buckets, and as we were already wet through and freezing to boot, we decided to return to the market to see if we could find a hot drink and something to eat. Surprisingly, although a number of restaurants were still open, quite a few of them were either closed or closing up as we made our way back up the street. We did find a table at Hungary Thai (yes, a restaurant that serves both ethnic cuisines) and as the restaurant filled with young hipsters on the town, we warmed ourselves with spiced tea. The 25th anniversary of the Winter Solstice Festival is in 2015. I’m looking forward to it, and I’ll be making a lantern that symbolizes my own wish for the sun to return. Hope to see you there!
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Winter Solstice Festival in Kensington Market, Toronto 2013