A new and memorable way of celebrating Lunar New Year is set to appear in Richmond at Gateway Theatre with Into the Light[在燈光之中] happening February 18 – 20, 2022. Into the Light is an all-ages, immersive, walk-through experience,bringing a unique approach to Lunar New Year, a holiday celebrated by many in the community.
Into the Light. Gateway Theatre. Photo by Sarah Race.
Into the Light [在燈光之中]
When: February 18 – 20, 2022
Friday –5:00PM to 8:00PM (last entry)
Saturday and Sunday – 1:00pm to 8:00pm (last entry)
Several of the rituals and customs practiced today during Lunar New Year, such as wearing the colour red, are said to have originated in the ancient tale of the sea-monster Nian (年). According to this legend, on the eve of Lunar New Year, Nian came out of hiding, terrorizing villages for food, and the villagers worked together to ward off the monster and the darkness with lanterns, loud noises, and bright light.
“We wanted to explore why we still celebrate and participate in these customs today and highlight the mythology behind rituals, amplify the Richmond community, and emphasize togetherness.” says Jasmine Chen, Gateway Theatre’s Artistic and Community Producer. “Into the Light offers a unique way of engaging with and learning about Chinese cultural traditions for everyone, no matter their cultural background.”
Created by Hong-Kong-born, Vancouver-based multidisciplinary artist, Stephanie Wong, and award-winning Richmond-based artist, Marina Szijarto, Into the Light invites audiences to step inside the tale of Nian and embark on a journey that will take them through the darkness, into celebration and light. Inside the immersive experience, audiences will be guided by illuminated lanterns and bursts of sound, colour and light, learning how certain Lunar New Year rituals became a tradition we still celebrate today.
As audiences exit the immersive experience and step into the light inside Gateway Theatre’s lobby, they will be able to participate in the lantern-making tradition and proudly hang them on the community display for all to see. The paper lantern kits can also be taken home where the assembled lantern is believed to bring good luck into the home. At the end of the experience, audiences are encouraged to visit a shrine and post their wishes for a prosperous new year.
Into the Light is an accessible way for all audiences to gain a deeper understanding about the origins and significance of Lunar New Year celebrations, to understand why these traditions are still valuable today, and to pass down this important cultural knowledge to future generations.
Win Tickets
I have a pair of tickets to give away to this experience, here’s how you can enter to win:
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I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Tuesday, February 1, 2022. UPDATE: The winner is Virginia!
Join the Vancouver Heritage Foundation (“VHF”) for Heritage Week from February 21-27, 2022. This year’s theme ‘Altogether Inclusive’ examines the various ways that heritage engagement requires creativity in addition to unique solutions and actions to encourage widespread participation.
Vancouver Heritage Week 2022
Heritage Week offers a chance to explore heritage across BC and Canada and take part in programming that provides opportunities to learn and share about Vancouver’s history, diverse cultural heritage and historic places. Events include:
Places That Matter Community Celebration When: Wednesday, February 23, 2022 from 7:00pm to 8:00pm Where: Online, Zoom Registration:Book online by donation
Vancouver Heritage Foundation presents an evening of storytelling from the Places That Matter project, hosted virtually through Zoom. Join us for our fifth annual community celebration which will include the reading of the Heritage Week 2022 Proclamation by City of Vancouver Councillors and the following speakers:
Musqueam community members
Alysa Routtenberg (Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia)
Keiko Honda (Kerrisdale Community Centre and Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society)
Randy Clark (Educator and former resident of Hogan’s Alley)
The Places That Matter plaque project launched in 2011 to recognize community-nominated sites that highlight some of the lesser-known people, places and events that have shaped Vancouver. A decade later, with 89 plaques installed, the Places That Matter – Community History Resource website continues to grow with personal stories and photographs submitted by community members. We invite participants, attendees and organizations to share their stories and connections to Places That Matter sites throughout 2022. Stay tuned for more plaque presentations and community celebrations.
Altogether Inclusive: A Heritage Week Virtual Stroll When: Thursday, February 24, 2022 from 7:00pm to 8:00pm Where: Online, Zoom Registration:Book online for $15
Join local historian, author and seasoned walking tour guide, John Atkin, to celebrate Heritage Week as he explores some of Vancouver’s unique heritage spots on this virtual stroll. This year’s Heritage Week theme – altogether inclusive – explores the many ways that heritage engagement requires creativity, as well as unique solutions and actions to encourage broad participation. There will be opportunities to ask John questions live after the pre-recorded virtual stroll. If you are unable to attend at the time of the virtual event, you can still register and a recording of the event will be sent to you within 2 weeks.
“Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today and we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration, our touchstone, our reference point, our identity.” UNESCO
The Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival will warm up your winter nights with fascinating authors from across Canada, USA, Israel, Australia and Great Britain February 6-10, 2022
The big themes emerge organically from the world around us: investigating the rise of the new anti-Semitism, exploring diverse identities and the formative place of the Holocaust there; and in this light, unpacking some parallels between the Jewish and the Indigenous experience.
Featured 2022 Festival authors will include: Opening Event with a duo of brilliant polemicists, American novelist and journalist DARA HORN (with her book People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present) and British comedian and writer DAVID BADDIEL (with his book Jews Don‘t Count).
The annual Book Clubs event will feature bestselling Australian author HEATHER MORRIS with her novel Three Sisters, the last in the Tattooist of Auschwitz trilogy that has taken the world by storm.
For the Closing Night, DANIEL SOKATCH, an expert who understands both sides of one of the world’s most complex and controversial topics the Israeli-Palestianian conflict will present Can We Talk About Israel? A Guide for the Curious, Confused and Conflicted.
Winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Fiction GARY BARWIN brings Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted: The Ballad of Motl the Cowboy to the festival and there’s US author JAI CHAKRABARTI whose A Play for the End of the World, takes his protagonist’s quest all the way to India in a deeply moving reminder of the power of the past to shape the present.
Short stories will be celebrated in an event with Vancouver’s RACHEL ROSE and her collection The Octopus Has Three Hearts, longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, together with Montreal’s AMI SANDS BRODOFF presenting her intricately linked stories in The Sleep of Apples.
From Toronto, novelist and cultural critic HAL NIEDZVIECKI will discuss his latest novel The Lost Expert, situated at the intersection between pop culture, media and individuality.
Fascinating stories of artists caught in the treacherous web of WWII will be presented by two US writers sharing a historical fiction subject: bestselling author MEG WAITECLAYTON with The Postmistress of Paris and painter/writer MICHAELA CARTER with Leonora in the Morning Light.
History continues to have a very important place: LEAH GARRETT will present X-Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War II, (a real historical inspiration for Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds!) and MENACHEM KAISER, winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Non-Fiction will take festival goers through the gripping story of retrieving a lost treasur in Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure.
BC authors will be represented by ISA MILMAN with her memoir Afterlight: In Search of Poetry, History and Home, RACHEL MINES with her translation of Jonah Rosenfeld’sThe Rivals and Other Stories; and, in an Epiloguewith profound interlaced roots in our community, ROBERT KRELL willlaunch his memoir Sounds from Silence and ALAN TWIGG, his comprehensive literary historyOut Of Hiding: Holocaust Literature Of British Columbia, an event moderated by local Renaissance man YOSEF WOSK.
Win Access
One lucky Miss604 reader/follower will win access to the Jewish Book Festival event of their choice! Here’s how to enter:
Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
Copy/paste the text below on Twitter for a bonus entry (1 entry)
[clickToTweet tweet=”RT to enter to win tickets to the Jewish Book Festival event of your choice @JCCVancouver https://miss604.com/2022/01/vancouver-jewish-book-festival-2022.html” quote=” Click to enter via Twitter” theme=”style6″]
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Monday, January 31, 2022. UPDATE! The winner is Dane.
The Lantern City returns this year with more captivating, free public art to enjoy from a diverse roster of local artists. Enjoy large scale lanterns in Downtown Vancouver and on Granville Island to mark the Lunar New Year from January 27 to February 21, 2022.
The Lantern City 2021 – Miss604 Photo
The Lantern City in Downtown Vancouver
We Are Family When: January 27 to February 9, 2022 Where: šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énk Square, North Plaza at Vancouver Art Gallery
Lantern artists:
Jag Nagra’s Nazar Battu
Paige Bowman’s Tiger Tower
Sandeep Johal’s One Day
Hung Tung’s Red Paper Series
The Lantern City project aims to celebrate diversity in a way that lights the path forward: “We all call this place home, and we all have a hand in creating the wonderful community called Vancouver. Our differences make us unique, and sharing them through art will only broaden our horizons. Displayed in the heart of Vancouver, these lanterns, designed by various local artists representing their own community, welcome everyone as part of the family.”
Accompanying the beautiful artwork is an exclusively composed musical piece, by Chao-Ming Tung (composer) and Hui-Kuan Lin (pipa player). Woven Melodies highlights connections between cultures from Taiwan to Canada and beyond, blending traditions, heritage, and art.
Granville Island is a place of creativity, where many residents of Vancouver have fond memories of childhood tied to its colourful setting, so the local theme is “Forever Young”. Children are fountains of creativity, with imaginations sprawling farther than their arms can reach, providing us with a refreshing perspective on how, together, we can build better communities for brighter tomorrows. Under the collective youth theme, individual artist pieces have been inspired by imagination, transformation, residential schools, conservation efforts and cultural expression.
There will be an opening ceremony event on Saturday, January 29th on Granville Island way with performances by Alegria by Cirque du Soleil’s street team and a Lunar Craft workshop.
Follow The Lantern City on Facebook for information about these free, public installations, the artists, and more.
TEDxSurrey will take place February 19th and it is set to once again be the premier TEDx event in Western Canada! The event will feature 12 speakers plus energizers and entertainers, all within a fast-moving, half-day schedule and while it’s sold out in person, you can get tickets to tune in online.
There’s also a new initiative from the speakers to give back to at risk-youth in Surrey. In association with Pathfinder Youth Society, you can donate the value of one ticket (tax receipt included) to send a youth to attend the event.
Expect to be engaged and entertained, and to have your thinking shifted on today’s most important topics. You’ll leave feeling inspired and equipped to make lasting changes wherever you live.
Speaker Lineup & Topics
Kevin Lamoureux: Decolonization for Canada’s Future
Dr. Sharlene Gill: Reframing cancer fear and denial to acceptance and empowerment
Suzanne Venuta: Caring connections can change a life. Anywhere, anytime by anyone.
Ana Carrizales: “Embracing the ugly” – focusing on how to embrace the pain in beauty
Fatima Zaidi: Sharing her powerful compassionate leadership-based business growth strategy called The Biotope, designed to help leaders discover their unique leadership.
Dr. Lara Boyd: The impact of stress and the brain
Dr. Petra Zebroff: Long term relationships and human sexuality
Denise Withers: Environmental shift
Riley Moynes: Looking at retirement from a psychological perspective in 4 phases
Dr. Simon Donner: Climate change and how to use your imagination to make a difference
Frances Litman: Climate action through personal stories
Dr. Robert McDermid: Compassion surrounding the possibility of death
TEDx events bring the power of TED to local communities. They’re Independently organized by curious individuals looking to capture the power of the ideas around them. Operating under a license granted by TED, TEDx events feature live speakers who spark conversations and generate a shift in thinking.
