Autumn’s waning daylight gives way to seasonal celebrations centered on light. Spontaneous Celebrations’ annual Lantern Parade at Boston’s Jamaica Pond brings together a diverse community to celebrate the changing of the seasons on the fourth Sunday of October.

A sliver of moon, soft breezes from the south, and a few thousand celebrants encircle the pond in lantern light. Lanterns are, for the most part, homemade from two-litre soda bottles layered with diffusing tissue paper cut-outs, and each lighted with a single candle. The 1.5-mile wooded path along the pond is left largely unlit, allowing each lantern to contribute its own warm glow. Rarely has one footcandle* looked so lovely.

* Footcandle: A unit of measure of the intensity of light falling on a surface, equal to one lumen per square foot. Originally defined with reference to a standardized candle burning at one foot from a given surface!

Photo Credit: Amy & Salim