Celebrate the end of the busy summer season with a magical lantern parade on Chocorua Lake at dusk.

On Sunday, September 1, at 6PM, join the Chocorua Lake Conservancy for its Annual Picnic in the Grove by Chocorua Lake, followed, at dusk, by the Parade of Lights on the lake. BYO picnic, drinks, chairs, flashlights or headlamps (important!), and whatever else you might need. Then, decorate your canoe or kayak with lanterns, lights or candles to participate in the parade, or watch the beauty unfold from the shore or the Narrows Bridge. This year’s parade will include paper lanterns made with visiting artist Gowri Savoor in a partnership project with the Yeoman’s Fund for the Arts. If you’d like to make a lantern with Gowri on August 30 or 31, please visit chocorualake.org/lantern-signup.

The Parade of Lights was started in the 1960s by painter and landscape designer Sam’l Newsom, a longtime Chocorua resident, and his friends. Newsom, who designed landscapes as disparate as the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and the Remick Park in Tamworth, was inspired by aspects of the Japanese festival celebrations he witnessed during his time living in Japan. Come see for yourself why this tradition continues so many decades after its inception. Boats will put in from the Grove at the Rt. 16 end of Chocorua Lake Road.

Image: Parade of Lights. Credit: Chocorua Lake Crankie artists