The Canberra Nara Peace Park will light up with 3000 candles on Saturday in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the peaceful relationship between Canberra and its sister city in the land of the rising sun - Nara.
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This year’s Canberra Nara Candle Festival will be honoured by the attendance of Nara Mayor Gen Nakagawa, who will create an additional display, providing 1000 of the 3000 candles for the event.
The event mirrors a much larger festival in Japan, the Nara Tokae, a huge festival that lights up the city and its temples with fields of candle-lit lanterns.
Here in Canberra, performances of martial arts, Japanese drumming and sumo wrestling will take place and activities will include lantern making and origami workshops.
A celebration was held on Friday at Japanese Ambassador Sumio Kusaka’s residence ahead of Saturday's festival.
Attendees were treated to performances of traditional Japanese dance, as well as Japanese craftsmen displaying the traditional art of crafting knives and chopsticks.
Mr Kusaka said the relationship between Canberra and Nara would be mutually beneficial.
“This relationship is quite important, very beneficial for both cities," Mr Kusaka said.
"This is a very unique combination of one of the oldest cities in Japan and one of the newest cities in Australia. We have a lot of differences from which we can learn of each other.
“When you have a very different friend you can learn from them."
Speaking through a translator, Mr Nakagawa said he appreciated the gesture of peace, as well as the time and work that went into achieving the relationship.
“I feel that so many people have contributed to form this friendship-relationship between two cities, because some time ago there were some opinions against naming the Canberra Nara Park as ‘Peace Park’, but now it’s Canberra Nara Peace Park and it has been for some time.
"Maybe it's unthinkable now but there must have been so many difficulties to reach that level of friendship."
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said Australians would benefit greatly from the relationship.
“We have struggled at times to get qualified Japanese language teachers. That education partnership that allows for teachers to go to Nara and teach English is a valuable thing in Japan, equally having teachers fluent in Japanese is a valuable thing for us.”
On a broader level Chief Minister Barr said Canberrans would benefit from the Japanese contribution to projects such as the Canberra Light Rail, in which the Mitsubishi Corporation is a partner and financial advisor.
The Canberra Nara Candle Festival will be held on Saturday, October 27, from 4-9pm at the Canberra Nara Peace Park in Lennox Gardens.
