The story
Sierra Leone Lantern Festival in Freetown
Freetown's Lantern Parade is a historic night-time procession of large illuminated floats through the city streets, accompanied by singing, bubu-style bamboo-pipe music, and competing lantern clubs, a tradition dating back over a century though its modern staging has become irregular.
Long before electric street lighting reached Freetown, residents lit their own way through the city with paper lanterns, and out of that practical beginning grew one of Sierra Leone's most visually striking cultural traditions.