A Unique Event Remembering Those We Love and Miss

Lakewood Cemetery invites the public to its second annual Lantern Lighting Celebration on Saturday, September 17, 5:00-8:00 p.m. With more than 400 attendees at last year’s first-time event, this celebration promises to be a unique evening of beauty, remembrance and entertainment for the whole family.

People can reserve a lantern by registering for the event in advance. For more information, including how to register, go to lakewoodcemetery.com, call 612-822-2171, or see more on the event page at facebook.com/LakewoodCemetery.

Lakewood’s Lantern Lighting Celebration offers an opportunity for people and their families to honor deceased loved ones by decorating a floating lantern in their memory. The event is celebratory in nature with live contemporary folk music by Jack Klatt & the Cat Swingers, food trucks and other activities. At dusk, in a nondenominational ceremony, attendees gather to release their candlelit lanterns onto Lakewood’s eight-acre lake, while the names of loved ones are read aloud.

“As night settles,” says Ronald Gjerde, Jr., president of the Lakewood Cemetery Association and emcee of the ceremony, “The individual lanterns, with their messages of love, peace and hope, float out onto the water, gathering together to bring brightness to the evening. It’s really quite beautiful.”

“Building on the long-term success of our Memorial Day event, our Lantern Lighting Celebration is one of many ways Lakewood invites the community to gather together and celebrate life in a special, uplifting way,” Gjerde continues. “The response from attendees at our first event was so overwhelmingly heartwarming and positive that we’ve decided to make it an annual celebration.”

Visit Facebook.com/LakewoodCemetery to watch a short video of highlights from last year’s event.

Throughout the event, guests can enjoy the beauty of Lakewood’s historic grounds, take self-guided tours of the cemetery (by downloading Lakewood’s mobile app which features eight different tours) and ride the historic streetcar from Lakewood’s old streetcar gate to Lake Harriet and back for $2 round trip (from the Minnesota Streetcar Museum).

New this year – Lakewood’s Memorial Chapel (built in 1910, on the National Register of Historic Places) and award-winning Garden Mausoleum (completed in 2011) will be open from 3:00-6:30 p.m., with information about the history and/or architecture of the buildings available inside.

The event is free and open to the public, with the exception of an optional $5 donation for a lantern and $2 streetcar rides from the Minnesota Streetcar Museum.

People can reserve a lantern by registering for the event in advance. For more information, including how to register, go to lakewoodcemetery.com, call 612-822-2171, or see more on the event page at facebook.com/LakewoodCemetery.

Founded in 1871, Lakewood Cemetery is a nonprofit, perpetual care cemetery association governed by a board of trustees. The cemetery exists to preserve the memory of life and share its beautiful landscape, rich history and artistic treasures with the community. Lakewood’s entrance is located at Hennepin Avenue and 36^th Street. The cemetery is open to the public every day.

It’s almost time to put on your walking shoes and see what’s great about Nicollet Avenue from a different perspective! The Kingfield Neighborhood Association (KFNA), Lyndale Neighborhood Association (LNA), & Whittier Alliance are excited to partner to bring their neighborhoods together on Sunday September 18 to enjoy Nicollet Open Streets for the 3rd year! Enjoy our main street by ped or pedal from 11 – 5 PM between kmart and 46th Street.

Open Streets are one-day events organized in collaboration with the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition that are focused around healthy living, sustainable transportation, local businesses, and community connections. For this one afternoon, Nicollet Avenue will be closed to all motorized traffic (cars and buses) and the street will be open for biking, walking, dancing, yoga, jump roping, art making, frolicking, and more!

This year there will also be an art fair along the 3400 block of Nicollet, with 10-by-10-foot spaces rented to artists and homebased businesses for $30 to support our entrepreneurial residents. We hope to reflect our community’s love of art while providing local artists an opportunity to showcase their work. Applications are available at kingfield.org, and must be submitted with payment to by September 15.

As the event draws near keep an eye on our Facebook Event page for musical line-ups, special deals, updates on sponsors and unique happenings, and eventually a full map of activities. Questions including those related to vending, tabling, or volunteering can be directed to Aryca at the Lyndale Association at . If you are ready to sign-up online, just use this link!

Enjoy a day of music in the park and help celebrate our community. Free face painting, crafts, rides, and games to entertain the family. Food and snacks are available for a fee. New this year we are having a family kickball tournament. Minimum of 5 players on a team, maximum of 10 players on the field at one time. Space is limited and games will be played during the event, call the park to register your family for the kickball tournament. 612-370-4908