Release a lantern for peace and love at the Home and Garden Expo

Prim Perfect would like you to join us for a very special ceremony on our region at the Home and Garden Expo at 4pm every day that the Expo is being held.

Alchemy Immortalis, who have an exhibit on our region, have created a very special item for Relay for Life – I’ll let Alchemy Cyannis tell you about it:

About the Chinese Peace Lanterns
As participants in the “Home and Garden Expo 2012,” we created this lantern as one of the items we donated to to help raise money for the American Cancer Society through the SL Relay for Life.

We were really excited to be part of the “Prim Perfect” sponsored sim, where we were invited to create within the theme of the “Blue Willow” story.  While most people are familiar with the iconic Blue Willow China pattern produced by British manufacturer, Minton, many are not aware that the various stories behind the dinnerware and its elements were fabricated as part of a marketing campaign.

The stories do borrow generously from several ancient Asian legends, (you can learn more about them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willow_pattern), with the romantic version of the story conjuring up tales of a wealthy Mandarin, and his beautiful daughter, who fell in love and ran away with her father’s humble accounting assistant in spite of being promised in marriage to a powerful Duke.  The china pattern elements convey the story of the lovers escaping and living happily on an island for some time before being caught, and put to death, with doves representing the resurrection and reunion of their souls, celebrating love’s ability to conquer all.

Being invited to create 2 pieces that we would give to help raise funds through the expo event, we happily embraced the Blue Willow tale and set to work crafting “The Emperor’s Throne”, capturing the graceful, downward sloping curves of Ming Dynasty era chairs, giving it a more contemporary feel by adding plush layers of tapestry telling the Blue Willow tale.

For our second item, we chose to create the lanterns.  Traditionally in Asia, blue lanterns represent immortality and peace.  We thought this not only captured the spirit of the Blue Willow tale, but honoured the undaunting spirit of cancer survivors, and of those family and friends we have lost, celebrating the immortality of their lasting legacies in each of our lives, and the peace that we all strive for during one of the most difficult journeys in any life.

We decided to borrow inspiration from China’s “Stone Forest”, the world’s “First Wonder” of the legendary seven, signifying the formidable trek each of us takes when touched by cancer, (personally, or through that of a family member or friend).  We wanted to create, on a small scale, a soul trek that Expo participants could take to the top of the metaphorical mountain, instilling it with the daunting landscape of the stone stalagmites springing forth from the ground in Yunnan Province’s Stone Forest, yet infused with the beauty and seeming impossibility of life springing forth from death as living trees and foliage do there from the stone.

We wanted this small inworld journey to embrace a sense of celebration at the top.  Whatever our personal milestones are along the way in a journey with cancer, they are significant, and to be celebrated.  This is where the lanterns come in.

When adventurer’s reach the top of the mountain after their precarious trek, we invite them to launch the blue lanterns in celebration of their own indomitable spirit, and that of family and friends.  Weaving one of the more iconic elements of the Blue Willow story back in, we added a final touch in releasing flocks of doves when donations of L$1,000 or more are given through the mountain top lanterns.

We honour those that have walked the journey in first life, and who may still be, and celebrate your resilience and your wins!The banners welcoming visitors to the Expo site invited them to take the trek to the top of the mountain to release a single sky lantern …in memory of a loved one,
in celebration of surviving,
for your husband,
for your wife,
for looking to the future,
for the ones you love today,
for those you’ll love tomorrow,
for peace in the world,releasing a single sky lantern
really is a wonderful way of paying tribute to your life,
of paying tribute to the one who has been lost,
and furthermore, it is the physical representation of an emotional release.

As the lantern rises,
you are surrounded by a sacred personal moment
to remember,
to reflect,
and to offer gratitude.

Peace, resilience and blessings to you all,
Alchemy and Immortalis Cyannis.