To me, Lunar New Year is typically the time where I get to celebrate my friends’ traditions and cultures by spending time together and sharing all kinds of delicacies. While both my cultures celebrate the new year on the first of January, ever since I moved to Canada by myself almost a decade ago, I’ve had such wonderful experiences with my friends here who celebrate Lunar New Year and get excited about sharing it with others. I always feel very welcome and cared for during this time of year because I can spend time with my chosen family, bond over delicious and home-cooked feasts, and feel so much love and togetherness from a wide variety of people!
With this piece, I wanted to express that emotion of finding love, happiness, friends, family, really anything that brings you joy, in a time where so much uncertainty surrounds us. With 2026 being the year of the fire horse, the horse in this piece represents the firepower within all of us to keep on trying, improving, and growing, despite what life may throw at us. And through all this ambiguity, our passion and ‘spark’ will always remain a constant in our lives to help guide us towards a better and brighter future. To be in the same space as all those things that bring us joy, no matter how big or small, and make us feel very grateful that even when times are tough and the road to our future seems dim, we still have that firepower within us all to keep going and shine brighter than ever.
Lily is a Japanese-Canadian illustrator from Yokohama, Japan. Her love for storytelling and designing concepts is what led her to pursue a career in the animation industry, which is where she currently works as a designer right here in Vancouver. In her free time, Lily likes to draw illustrations revolving around her cultural upbringing in hopes that it will resonate with people of similar backgrounds and/or interests. She is always down to meet new people and connect with others through art and culture, so don’t be afraid to say hello!
Cosmic Glimmer
To me, Lunar New Year is typically the time where I get to celebrate my friends’ traditions and cultures by spending time together and sharing all kinds of delicacies. While both my cultures celebrate the new year on the first of January, ever since I moved to Canada by myself almost a decade ago, I’ve had such wonderful experiences with my friends here who celebrate Lunar New Year and get excited about sharing it with others. I always feel very welcome and cared for during this time of year because I can spend time with my chosen family, bond over delicious and home-cooked feasts, and feel so much love and togetherness from a wide variety of people!
With this piece, I wanted to express that emotion of finding love, happiness, friends, family, really anything that brings you joy, in a time where so much uncertainty surrounds us. With 2026 being the year of the fire horse, the horse in this piece represents the firepower within all of us to keep on trying, improving, and growing, despite what life may throw at us. And through all this ambiguity, our passion and ‘spark’ will always remain a constant in our lives to help guide us towards a better and brighter future. To be in the same space as all those things that bring us joy, no matter how big or small, and make us feel very grateful that even when times are tough and the road to our future seems dim, we still have that firepower within us all to keep going and shine brighter than ever.
Lily is a Japanese-Canadian illustrator from Yokohama, Japan. Her love for storytelling and designing concepts is what led her to pursue a career in the animation industry, which is where she currently works as a designer right here in Vancouver. In her free time, Lily likes to draw illustrations revolving around her cultural upbringing in hopes that it will resonate with people of similar backgrounds and/or interests. She is always down to meet new people and connect with others through art and culture, so don’t be afraid to say hello!
The Lantern City is grateful to be held on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam Indian Band), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish Nation), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation). We acknowledge our privilege to be gathered on this land, and commit to work with and be respectful to the Indigenous peoples whose arts and stories inspire us to bring communities together.
