Moonraking

One wintery weekend in late February we took part in the Moonraking festival in Slaithwaite, a village just further down the Colne Valley from us in Marsden. This year was a particularly special one as was celebrating 40 years of Moonraking creativity, story telling and performance culminating in a candle-lit lantern procession around the village.

Together with friends we went to one of the special lantern making workshops put on in the days leading up the parade. As it was our first time we were ushered to the beginners room where, with the help of some great volunteers, we learnt the basics of constructing a willow and paper lantern. After our initially ambitious plans were scaled down to producing just one lantern for the family, in this case a star, we got to work.

The willow was a lovely material to work with, and it was amazing to see all of the different shaped lanterns in different stages of production. Our star came together quite quickly then followed by the messy bit - soaking tissue in a watery/pva glue mix and then plastering it onto the willow frame –safe to say this was the girls favourite bit!

The Moonraking festival happened on the following Saturday evening and it was amazing to take part, amongst all of the other participants. Watching all the lanterns bobbing along the streets and canal in the darkness, it really was a very pretty sight – if of course not slightly without its challenges. Juggling two small children who both wanted to be as high as possible to get the best view whilst also wanting to carry the pointy lantern often at eye-level, whilst keeping everyone fed and watered – as none of us can go very long without eating something. Having said that we had a fantastic evening and have already got some ideas about our next family lantern for 2026, maybe one with fewer pointy bits.