Luminaria at University of Alberta Botanic Garden

Around this time last year, I attended Luminaria, a popular winter event held in the Devonian Botanic Garden (now known as the University of Alberta Botanic Garden). Although it was difficult to leave my warm cosy room and visit a garden during the freezing winter, I went ahead due to my desire to visit as many places as I could before I left Edmonton.

I took the free shuttle service from Health Sciences Jubilee Station. Before boarding, the staff checked if you had tickets as all the tickets for the event were sold-out. I nearly gave myself a heart attack as I could not find my e-ticket in my email inbox and spent the 40 minute bus journey panicking. Thankfully, I located the email before we reached the entrance!

The queue at the entrance was pretty short. There was a small gift shop near the entrance which you can visit on the way out. Luminaria was held in the Kurimoto Japanese Garden and access to other parts of the Botanic Garden was not allowed. Each visitor was allowed to stay in the Botanic Garden for around 2-3 hours, but in reality you could purchase tickets for an earlier time slot and stayed till you were satisfied... if the cold did not deter you.

Luminaria was the epitome of the festive winter season as it featured pathways lit with beautiful lanterns, ice sculptures, apple cider and cheeky snow sprites. Here are some of the photos I have taken!

Candle-lit lanterns adorned all of the pathways in the University of Alberta Botanic Garden.

Intricate ice sculptures

The Kurimoto Japanese Garden featured some interesting plants which I assume can be found in Japan as well.

When I attempted to take a long-exposure photograph and the snow sprites decided to photobomb...

Tried again! Uh.. do you spot anything spooky on the left of the photograph?

My favourite shot - a 3 minute long exposure (which was still underexposed).

Although I did not take as many photographs as I would have liked to (the cold killed my dexterity), I loved observing how Canadians celebrated winter. Luminaria 2017 is now ongoing, and I hope to see photographs uploaded by this year's visitors soon!