The Forest Hills Lantern Festival, or in Japan, "Bon Festival", honors ancestors and those more recently departed by lighting and releasing at dusk, hand decorated lanterns onto Lake Hibiscus in Forest Hills Cemetary.

It is preceeded by performances by young students from Showa Boston, Ron Murphy and the New Life Experience gospel group, Chu Ling Dance Academy, and the Samurai Taiko Drumming and Martial Arts group.

This was my first attendance and I was so moved by the serenity and symbolism of the release of the lanterns. Next year I do plan on making one to honor my own remembered kin and set it afloat with everyone else. It is a wonderful photographic opportunity, but please do bring your tripod. I didn't. :(

I did take liberties with cloning out background distractions and trying to ease my noise shooting at high ISO. Also some of the Chu Ling dancers were heavily messed with. But I liked the result of those...