The 2026 Floating Lantern Festival includes introduction of the winners of the Calgary International Contest for Young Artists; a performance by Indigenous singer songwriter Dorothy Walker; messages from the Mayor of Hiroshima (read by Nimrat Dhillon, 10 years old) and from the Mayor of Nagasaki (read by Hanna Chan, 11 years old); and a talk and performance by the Calgary Vietnamese Women’s Association. 

Our book with close to twenty Calgary co-authors, Our City as a Moveable Feast for Our Time: Intentional Cultural Transformation in Calgary, Alberta, Canada will be newly published, and you can get a copy while you are at the event. James Mathiang will be there with copies of his book, Education on the Road: My Journey from Child Soldier to Global Citizen, also available for you to get a copy. James will also have a dialogue event, with Chetna Hans facilitating.

This event is a chance for all of us who participate to remind ourselves what humans did to fellow human beings in August 1945 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to renew our dedication to a world free of nuclear weapons and a healthy global community.