Winter Light Festival -LNN

By Dori Modney and Photojournalist Brandyn Montgomery

Winter Light Festival brings light – and fun – to dark winter evenings

Dec 5, 2019 | 3:47 PM

LETHBRIDGE — The Winter Light Festival at Nikka Yuko Garden officially got underway last Friday (Nov. 29) and it’s clear the event’s popularity has not dimmed.

Many cultures around the world have a ‘season of light’ celebration during the winter months as a means of dispelling the darker days, and the Japanese culture is no exception. The Nikka Yuko gardens incorporated that observance into a Winter Lights Festival and created the new attraction to draw-in visitors in 2016.

A large number of people had commented that they would like to see lights in the garden, and after staff did research on the cultural significance of winter lights in Japan and what that meant, they thought it would it would fit perfectly.

In the Japanese culture, light is used in celebrations, remembrance of loss and to bring good energy. Given the local Japanese community and its history, the festival also gives recognition to what that culture has added to the Southern Alberta landscape.

What's Happening in Lethbridge this week: April 15, 2024

Apr 15, 2024

Week-in-review: Street sweeping, policing in Coaldale and #SlowYourRoll

Apr 13, 2024

What's Happening in Lethbridge this weekend: April 12, 2024

Apr 12, 2024

During the first year of the event, the lure of the 96,000 LED lights that were used to decorate trees, shrubs and rocks across the four acre garden, drew 4000 visitors by the end of December that year — and it was a cold winter.

The second year, there were 114,000 LED lights and many more have been added since. This year, a lighted arch way has been constructed over the walkway to the garden’s entrance.

Melanie Berdusco, Nikka Yuko’s event manager, says they have also wanted added some new and interactive displays for people to enjoy, while they’re strolling through the Winter wonderland.

“So this year, we’ve hired Lee Ross of Frozen Memories and he’s created three amazing ice sculptures for us. We’ve got a sumo wrestler, a samarai and a beautiful picture frame as well.”

“A lot of times, when people come to the garden, it’s very much – stay on the path, don’t touch anything and just look and enjoy – so we wanted to add something a little more fun so people can actually interact with it and touch it.”

Berdusco admits it was very different to figure out where we were going to put these ice sculptures, making sure that we can still have traffic flow as people are walking through the garden.

“It’s just been very interesting to learn how they’re created by Lee. He’s made them in bricks (ice) and then he kind of melds them together while he’s here and he uses an environmentally friendly sand that adds the colour to the ice sculptures. So, once they melt, we can just clean up the sand – there’s no dye or anything that will harm the garden.”

A lot of planning was done to make sure the ice sculptures are in places where they won’t be seen by the sun, so they shouldn’t melt too quickly and during the chinooks they’ll be covered, in the hope they will last for a good portion of the Winter Lights Festival.

Berdusco explains there are two other new elements this year.

“On Friday nights in December, we will have city light tours with California Dream Limousine and tickets can be purchased on-line at NikkaYuko.com. You can enjoy the light in the garden then hop into a limo-bus and it takes you around the city to look at all of the other light displays. On Saturday’s there will be horse and wagon rides as well. This year they will have two sets of horses and wagons, which means decreased line-ups for people, as they take a ride through Henderson.”

Profits from the festival all go into Nikka Yuko Garden events.

You can take in the Festival of Lights from 6:00 to 9:00-pm on the following days: Dec: 12, 13, 14 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 31. Jan: 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25, 31. NOTE: If the temperature goes below -25, the Garden will be closed.

For those who are unfamiliar with Nikka Yuko, planning for the garden began several years before Canada’s Centennial in 1967, to recognize contributions made by those of Japanese ancestry to Southern Alberta, and Lethbridge in particular. It was opened in July of 1967 as a symbol of international friendship. The name was created from the Japanese words Ni (from Nihon meaning Japan), Ka from Kanada or Canada, and Yuko, which means “friendship” to formulate “Japan-Canada friendship”.