Festival of Lights

Question. Have you ever wondered what it would be like if your whole life just turned into a carnival? Loud music everywhere, bright lights, food vendors tempting you with snacks way beyond your daily calorie limit. Well that is basically what is happening to me for the next three days in Lyon. It is officially the Fête des lumière and the whole city is drowned in lights and noise. It's quite beautiful really. I was on my way to my 6:00pm class when I discovered a whole bunch of people waiting in front of the Hotel de Ville. I assumed they were all waiting for the show to start and thought I might as well wait and snap some pictures before heading to class. Turns out, I ended up spending the whole class period walking around the city trying to see what else the city had to offer. 


Each large landmark in Lyon has its own light show and music accompaniment. They use the actual buildings/statues to create the show and something that is typically a stone grey color is turned into a piece of luminary art. They change the colors continuously and because it is light, they can bend the light to make the statues look like they are moving. Its amazing how precise they are. I can only imagine how much money and time the city has to invest in this festival each year. Since they change the festival theme every year, they need to hire people to envision something amazing, and even more people to actually make it happen. The city also has to employ extra police and security all around the city and pay for the lighting equipment. 


The Festival of Lights expresses gratitude towards the Virgin Mary on December 8 of each year. This Lyonnaise tradition is celebrated with every house placing candles along the outsides of all the windows to produce a spectacular effect throughout the streets. I have seen quite a few homes do it but it doesn't seem like the whole city participates anymore.

It's amazing isn't it? If there is anything amazing about Lyon, I would have to say it is this festival. Although I would pick San Francisco over this city any day, Lyon can not be beat when it comes to putting on a show. If you google the name of the festival, you can see some of the past festival themes as well. Tomorrow I will be going to another building that is suppose to look like Hiyao Miyazaki's floating castle in the sky. If you want to see the pictures, I will post them in my "december in lyon" facebook picture album.