Österlen Lyser

In 2005 an idea was hatched for extending the tourist season around here. November is generally miserable in this part of the world, so that wasn't easy. It's cold and dark and wet. The fall colors are off the trees, but it's not cold enough for snow to stick. What they came up with is Österlen Lyser. Österlen is the name of the area; lyser means shines or glows. Pretty much every little town in the area comes up with their own way to light up the night during the first weekend in November. Some have performance artists or artwork or fire or light. In the little town of Lövestad, it has become tradition to launch Asian paper lanterns then parade around town with torches. In short, it's a pyromaniac's dream!

I was impressed that over a hundred people showed up in Lövestad where the event was organized by the town chamber of commerce. Besides the usual chamber of commerce people, there were a lot of families with kids and even some people from the old folks home. They've been doing this for a few years now, so they've gotten pretty good at it. There were lighting stations set up for those who didn't want to kneel on the ground, and there were plenty of people who could show you how to do it.

My husband sold lanterns, and I ran around taking pictures, but we felt perfectly comfortable letting our daughter roam around. People were more than happy to help her light her lanterns.

We were lucky that it had stopped raining and it wasn't very windy. A steady stream of lanterns floated over town.

Eventually the wind started picking up making it more difficult to launch the lanterns. If the wind blew the lantern on it's side before it the flame had warmed the air enough for it to take flight, the warm air would escape. There was also a chance that if could burn a hole in the paper lantern. If this happened, it wouldn't take flight. Some of these damaged lanterns hovered near ground level and got blown into trees. Amazingly enough, nothing caught fire.

When the lantern launching started winding down, torches were distributed, and people formed a parade through town.

They stopped at the new sculpture park where some fireworks were lit, then they proceeded through town.

The final destination was a barn where a mystery guitarist performed. The kids were intrigued and tried to peek and see who it was. Eventually the screen was removed, but it wasn't anyone I recognized.

By this point, it had been over an hour since I could feel my frozen feet, so I was glad to get home and have a bit bowl of homemade chili.