With the sun setting over the horizon my boyfriend and I headed to the Water Lantern Festival at Mueller Lake Park for our anniversary. We started out the evening by going to get our lantern kits and our couples package that came with two lanterns, two markers in different colors for decorating the lanterns, and two commemorative bags and a scavenger hunt. 

The scavenger hunt included questions like “find someone that is celebrating an anniversary” or “find someone who’s favorite color is blue”. This aspect of the evening really brought in the sense of community that the event was trying to create and it allowed for my boyfriend and I to talk to other people at the event and find out more about them. It was nice to start conversations with other people because the event attracts people for a number of different reasons like mourning the loss of a loved one or simply just to relax. It was a good feeling to get  to connect to the other people there and lean into the spiritual experience that the Water Lantern Festival was trying to create. 

After getting our kits we found a nice patch on the ground and we set up our camp for the night. The park had plenty of seating ground, both on the grass and in an amphitheater area that was around the lake. This was nice for the people that wanted to pack light or didn’t opt for the package that came with the blanket. 

Before the lantern launch began my boyfriend and I went to grab some yummy food from the range of food trucks that the event had brought in. We eventually decided on Greek food, which was extremely delicious and something new that I had gotten to try. We had also gotten a funnel cake to share since that was my favorite food and a must have at events like these that really tied off the culinary experience of the night. My one critique with that though was that the lines for food were ridiculously long and we waited over an hour in line and another 30 minutes to get our dinners. This could have been improved with a few more food trucks added to the mix, especially ones that the managers at the event knew were going to be popular, like taco or barbeque trucks. 

When the time came for the lanterns to be launched, we decorated one of them for our anniversary and put our hopes for many more happy days to come. On the second one we wrote about our hopes of self improvement and healing going into the future. Before setting them off in the water we took some pictures of them in the photo area that was set up with cute heart lights in front of the lake. This was a nice set up for the event to have and allowed for my boyfriend and I to get some really cute pictures before we set our lanterns out on the water. 

It was a surreal feeling seeing all of the lanterns in the water at the end of the night. They flickered and lit up the lake in an awe-inspiring way. Everyone’s hopes and dreams from that evening were written on those lanterns and getting to see all of them out on the water felt magical. 

The Water Lantern Festival was a beautiful experience and it was very calming and eye-opening. The best thing about the festival was getting to see the people coming together as a community to share their hopes and dreams and loss and help each other heal. Overall, I would definitely recommend the festival to anyone that is looking for a cute date idea or an opportunity to have a calming and relaxing spiritual experience.