Vancouver Winter Lantern Festival

Vancouver’s Winter Solstice Lantern Festival involves evening music and fire performances on December 21st at the Yaletown Roundhouse and Granville Island.

Last year, the 30th annual Winter Solstice Lantern Festival takes place on December 21st. Other fabulous holiday events and attractions to check out that same week include the PNE Winter Fair, VanDusen Festival of Lights, Vancouver Christmas Market, Canyon Lights at Capilano Bridge, the Glow Christmas Carnival and Martini Town Merry & Bright.

To learn about the above and other holiday attractions this time of year, see our article about Top Things to Do in Vancouver at Christmas. To learn about the Winter Solstice Lantern Festival, continue reading.

Vancouver Winter Solstice Festival

The festival takes place during the Christmas season, but it isn’t a Christmas-themed event. Rather, it’s a celebration of the darkest day of the year and old-world traditions. It’s also fun, family-friendly, community-focused and mostly free, although some venues are ticketed and donations are encouraged.

The Winter Solstice Festival took place at three different venues in 2023 – in Yaletown, at Granville Island and in Strathcona. In some years, festivities also take place at Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden in Chinatown as well (but not in 2023).

Click any of the above locations to jump to a description about each particular venue’s activities, or see below for more information about all the activities.

Winter Solstice Events

The three venues for the 30th Annual Winter Solstice Lantern Festival in 2023 are listed below.

The events usually run from around 6:00 pm until 10:00 pm (plus or minus), and typical activities include lantern making, a procession through the streets and area walkways, music, fire performances and other forms of entertainment. In some cases, the events also feature a ticketed candle-lit labyrinth to walk around.

The same as the year before, the 2023 festival had a series of workshop videos on the Winter Solstice Festival website to help people create lanterns and more. Last year, there were also in-person workshops available at the Roundhouse Community Centre and the False Creek Community Centre.

At the Roundhouse in Yaletown

The Yaletown event takes place primarily at the Roundhouse Community Centre at 181 Roundhouse Mews.

Lantern-making workshops take place at the Yaletown venue on days leading up to the event. The schedule of workshops at the Roundhouse Community Centre last year was as follows:

Tuesday, December 12th, 2023 – nature lantern workshop (6:30 pm to 9:30 pm)
Wednesday, December 13th, 2023 – nature lantern workshop (6:30 pm to 9:30 pm)

There were also activities at Exhibition Hall on Thursday, December 21st, 2023. There was a pin-prick lantern workshop at 6:00 pm that cost $10 per person, followed by a procession to David Lam Park. Roving musicians performed, food was available and there was an interactive donation lantern as well.

At the Yaletown Roundhouse venue the “Labyrinth of Light” features over 500 beeswax candles that people can walk around, at set times on December 21st. The labyrinth happened in 2023 with timed entries. Tickets cost about $10 per person over the age of 12. The December 21st event schedule for Yaletown last year included the following:

9:00 am to 9:00 pm – lantern sales at the venue’s front desk
6:00 pm to 10:30 pm – Labyrinth of Light Walk
8:00 pm to 9:00 pm – Secret Lantern Walk

For more information about the labyrinth see further below.

Winter Solstice Lanterns Musician

False Creek & Granville Island

The Winter Solstice Festival also has activities most years along the False Creek Seawall and at Granville Island on the evening of December 21st.

Last year, multiple workshops happened at the False Creek Community Centre at 1318 Cartwright Street. They took place daily from December 10th until the 21st.

The “Labyrinth of Light” was also set up at Performance Works on Granville Island on December 21st last year. Tickets cost about $10 per person ages 13 and above. The event schedule in 2023 included the following:

9:00 am to 9:00 pm – lantern sales at the False Creek Community Centre
10:30 pm – performances and workshops at the False Creek Community Centre
6:00 pm to 10:30 pm – Labyrinth of Light Walk at Performance Works

With this component of the festival there are usually at least a couple of processions that start in different locations but converge at the same place, at the Water Park on Granville Island. This past year, there were three processions to enjoy on December 21st. The first two started at 6:00 pm at Leg-in-Boot Square and the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre. The third began at Triangle Square at 6:20 pm.

Winter Solstice Crowds at Granville Island — Festival crowds by Ron Basford Park

More About the False Creek & Granville Island Activities

In 2023 there were extra performances and things to do at various venues. For example, Lind Hall featured entertainment between 7:00 pm and 9:30 pm. The Vancouver Morris Men entertained guests there at 8:00 pm, followed by a Community Dance with The Carnival Band at 8:30 pm.

There were also workshops on December 21st at the False Creek Community Centre. Pin-prick lanterns could be made between 5:00 pm and 6:30 pm, while headdress-making started at 6:00 pm. Another nature lantern workshop started at 7:00 pm and ended at 9:30 pm.

Fire Performer at Winter Solstice Festival — Fire Show on Granville Island

Festival Labyrinths of Light

A labyrinth is a meditative maze-like pattern that’s usually two-dimensional and on the ground or floor of a spiritual place. The Winter Solstice Lantern Festival versions feature hundreds of beeswax candles. Many religions use labyrinths for prayer and contemplative purposes, including a variety of Christian churches.

Tickets for the Labyrinth of Lights at Performance Works and at the Roundhouse typically cost $10 and last year had to be purchased for set times. Children ages 12 or younger enter for free.

Winter Solstice Candle Labyrinth — Festival Labyrinth

LABYRINTH TIPS

Below are some tips to help you make the most of your labyrinth experience at the Winter Solstice Lantern Festival.

TIP #1: Both the festival’s labyrinths are beautiful. In past years the Granville Island one is usually slightly less busy, and it’s in a theatre whereas the Roundhouse labyrinth is in a gymnasium. With both, the lights are dim so they look and feel very similar.

TIP #2: Expect to wait in line for your turn, even with timed ticket admission. The wait isn’t too long though. Once inside, expect your labyrinth experience to last about 20 minutes. Feel free to take your time, relax, enjoy and know that there is no official right or wrong way to walk a labyrinth (so long as it doesn’t negatively impact other people, like if you make noise or lie on the ground, both of which are not permitted).

TIP #3: The Roundhouse labyrinth is typically busier than the Granville Island venue. It gets especially busy some years between around 6:30 pm and 8:30 pm, and least busy after 9:00 pm (which is after very young families have gone home). When it’s busy the lineup to get in gets long, but it never gets too overly crowded in the labyrinth itself.

Strathcona

There are usually lantern-making workshops at Strathcona Community Centre at 601 Keefer Street. Last year was no exception. Th schedule for 2023 is listed below. Both workshops were free to attend.

Thursday, December 14th, 2023 – pin-prick lantern workshop (6:30 pm to 8:30 pm)
Monday, December 18th, 2023 – pin-prick lantern workshop (6:30 pm to 8:30 pm)

On Thursday, December 21st, there was also a musical lantern procession outside the community centre at 6:00 pm. It ran until around 7:30 pm.

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden

Chinatown’s Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden holds special events periodically, and one of them is often the Winter Solstice Festival held on December 21st each year. The Garden hosted activities in 2018, but not in 2019, 2021 or 2022.

In years when it does happen, the Winter Solstice Festival at the garden is a small but interesting event, and features a selection of beautiful lanterns, lights scattered around the garden and live music in a side room.

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Lanterns If you plan to be in the area anyway (perhaps for Chinese food at one of the nearby Chinatown restaurants), and you are into lanterns and winter solstice celebrations, you should check it out.

The Winter Solstice Lantern Festival takes place most (but not all) years at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden at 578 Carrall Street from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm.

At the Chinatown event (in years when it happens) there is an admission cost.

Differences Between the Festival Venues

Each year the Winter Solstice Lantern Festival is celebrated in more than one venue. Wondering how each of them compares? See below for how each venue is both unique and similar to the others.

The Granville Island and Roundhouse venues are the most similar. Festival activities at both places typically include impressive fire shows, similar live entertainment and identical craft workshops. Both are hosted at community centres and general admission is free, although donations are encouraged.

Crafts at the two community centres usually include the same lantern-making and headdresses. The lanterns are made out of paper, sticks, glue, dried flowers and leaves. They are beautiful and their cost varies on the type of lantern made. The headdresses are kind of like wreathes that you wear on your head and are made out of green twigs and leaves.

How do the Granville Island and Roundhouse festivals differ? The Roundhouse venue is perhaps slightly busier and it’s conveniently close to a SkyTrain station. The fire shows at both places are excellent when they happen, although the one at Granville Island is arguably slightly more impressive because it takes place on a hill which is pretty cool. Other than that, although different, the two venues are pretty comparable.

The event at Dr. Sun-Yat Sen Garden, meanwhile, in years when it happens, has the tea ceremony as well as a general admission fee, but no labyrinths or fire shows. The Chinatown event also has more of a Chinese-theme (because of its location) and features beautiful lanterns throughout the gardens.

Solstice Festival Fire Show — Festival Fire Show at Granville Island

About the Festival

Vancouver’s Winter Solstice Festival is put on by the Secret Lantern Society which is a not-for-profit, artist-run and community-driven organization. Last year, the organization celebrated its annual December event for the 30th time!

The mission of the society is to “provide opportunities for the public to engage with professional artists, participate in multicultural celebrations … and become involved in their own neighbourhoods and diverse cultural activities through volunteer activities.”