A Christmas chandelier first installed in 2007 for Canal City Hakata, Fukuoka, Japan. A story about how the chandelier came to be in Fukuoka accompanied the installation.
How Mountain Forest Chandelier came to Fukuoka
Not long ago, the first snowflakes came falling out of the sky. When one landed on the nose of Kwww, he looked up. Kwww is a squirrel and like most animals his name comes from the sound that he normally makes, but now he said “Brrr, I’m cold”.
Kwww was gathering all the forest animals from the French Mountain Forest for a meeting under the Old Pine Tree. As you can imagine, it is quite unusual to have a group of squirrels, bunnies, wild horses, swans, butterflies, deer and swallows together. This evening meeting was urgent. Winter was starting.
“We must find a solution,” said Kwww, “otherwise we will all be hungry”. Kwww was actually always a bit hungry. For him the problem was not being able to find food, but to remember where he hid it. “And if we are all hungry, we will not be able to celebrate our big Christmas Party with nuts, berries, lemonade and cookies”
“Party?” asked a voice that came from above their heads. All animals looked up and saw a beautiful red bird sitting in the top branches of the Old Pine Tree. “Who are you?” asked the deer, who was probably the most curious of all animals. None had seen this beautiful red bird before in Mountain Forest.
“My name is TwitTwitTwu” spoke the bird in a singing voice. “I came from a country from far away. I came from over the sea, over the mountains, over the desert and beyond the forest. When I flew over this clearing, I saw you all gathering and thought you were having a party. I just love parties; they are my favourite. But this party is not much fun.”
“Excuse me but this is not a party, this is a very serious meeting” said Kwww, trying to sound serious, which as you know is quite difficult for a little squirrel, especially if butterflies keep flapping around your head, trying to pull the ends of your ears.
“We are actually talking about a party, our Christmas Party,” said Hiii the wild horse. “You see this year the snow is coming early and we have not collected enough food for all of us in the winter. Soon Mountain Forest will be covered in snow and we will not be able to find much more. This is a shame because our Christmas party is our best and biggest party of the year”.
“Well, perhaps I have a solution for you” said TwitTwitTwu. I come from a place called Fukuoka where people are very kind and they also love celebrations. In fact, they are very good at Christmas celebrations. Why don’t you come with me and join our party?”
“Hurray Hurray Hurray, we are going to a party, we are going to a party” shouted all the animals. It seemed the meeting was over as the wild horses started dancing around in circles, the bunnies hopping up and down and the butterflies flapping around even madder than they normally do.
“How do we get there?” came a little voice, it was WekWek, the youngest of the swans. Although young, she was also one of the smartest animals in the forest. “It sounds very very far away where you came from. I am not sure if I could fly that far and I am sure even the Wild Horses could not run over the sea.”
“Do not worry my little one” said TwitTwitTwu in her singing voice, not only am I very strong, I brought my 5 brothers and sisters. Together we can lift you all up, easily. If you would all climb up into this Big Old Pine Tree, we will all together lift you up and fly away. Perhaps the Swallows and Butterflies could flap their wings along for a bit as well.”
And so it came that a large white tree, filled with forest animals and 6 red birds is celebrating Christmas with you in Fukuoka. I hope you help them to have a good time, show them how good you are at parties. They may come back next year, if you celebrate well enough.
Photography by Canal City Hakata