DESCRIPTION OF ISSUE
WHERE/WHEN APPLICABLE

DESCRIPTION OF ISSUE:
Community celebrations in the Heart of the City range from parades to ethnic carnivals to art and flower shows to ceremonies that honor the dead. Celebrations in the neighborhoods add an important dimension to community life. In a place with rich cultural diversity, such as the Heart of the City, many celebrations embrace specific ethnic traditions. Others intentionally bring people of multiple cultures together or celebrate a shared geographic location. Some neighborhood celebrations have a somber tone - such as the annual Lantern Festival in Forest Hills Cemetery that focuses on loved ones lost - while others celebrate history, art, or lilacs.

Open spaces in the Heart of the City serve as the primary venue for community celebrations. Major popular celebrations take place annually in Franklin Park, the Southwest Corridor Park, Forest Hills Cemetery, the Arnold Arboretum, and Fallon Field. 

Back to top


WHERE/ WHEN APPLICABLE:
Franklin Park: 
Franklin Park serves as the premiere location for summertime ethnic festivals in Boston. The Puerto Rican Festival, the Caribbean Carnival, and the Dominican Festival are all multi-day events that take place in Franklin Park each summer. The festivals draw people from throughout the region and include parades, concerts, competitions, dance performances, food stands, Ferris wheels, and a wide array of other portable carnival rides. The largest of the festivals, the Caribbean Festival, includes a pre-dawn parade from Morton Street to Blue Hill Avenue and into Franklin Park.

The festivals bring tens of thousands of people to Franklin Park. They require months of planning, a battery of security officers, and a massive post-event clean-up effort. In the past, residents of surrounding neighborhoods have complained of the traffic, noise, trash, and occasional violence associated with the summer festival season. However, most seem to agree that the quality of planning has improved in recent years and that the celebrations generally do not disturb residents late at night.  

Southwest Corridor Park:
While many festivals in the Heart of the City celebrate particular cultures and invite others to participate, the annual Wake Up the Earth Festival is a celebration of multiple cultural traditions that share a common theme of springtime celebration. The festival, which occurs each May, includes a parade and elaborate decorations, drumming, food, music, performances, displays, and maypole dancing. A group of residents began the tradition of the Wake Up the Earth Festival in 1979 in the midst of their struggle to block plans to extend I-95 into Jamaica Plain.

Forest Hills Cemetery:
The Lantern Festival is held at Lake Hibiscus in Forest Hills Cemetery. It is a ceremony adapted from a traditional Japanese festival known as "obon". The ceremony is intended to honor the dead and invite them to visit the earth. After an evening picnic, participants light lanterns and release them into the lake.

Jamaica Pond:
The Jamaica Pond Lantern Parade occurs annually on an October evening. People gather for a peaceful walk around the pond with lit candle lanterns. The parade has been a neighborhood celebration since the early 1980s. 

Fallon Field:
Local organizations in Roslindale organize a Roslindale Day Parade followed by a Family Field Day at Fallon Field  each October. Local businesses and restaurants are featured.

Other celebrations:
People parade down Blue Hill Avenue as a part of various neighborhood celebrations. The Jamaica Plain Worlds Fair, which has a strong Latino influence, occurs in northern Jamaica Plain on Centre Street on the outskirts of the Heart of the City. Other neighborhood celebrations include the Haitian Caribbean Art Expo and Open Studio weekend in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury. In previous years, Hands Across Egleston Square has brought together diverse populations in the Egleston Square area.

Back to top