Text and Photographs by Daniel Krieger, West Side Rag
On this year’s winter solstice, which fell on Thursday, December 21, as places all over the world held festivals to mark the beginning of winter, the Lincoln Square Business Improvement District (BID) joined the fun with its second edition of the ‘WinteRamble.’ Like last year, the Processional Arts Workshop provided frost giant puppets and ice lanterns for the illuminated procession that wended its way around the Lincoln Square neighborhood, accompanied by the eerie strains of kalimbascopes played on speakers placed throughout.
Once the sun had set and the longest night of the year was underway, the procession set off to cheers on Broadway between 62nd and 63rd Street where the Lincoln Plaza Cinema used to be. Braving the bitter cold, it slowly snaked its way south as if it had just woken up from a long slumber, and then made a hairpin turn left onto Central Park West, heading north.
What grabbed the attention and piqued the curiosity of passersby, besides a festive moving crowd of over 100 where you ordinarily wouldn’t see one, was the seven 14-foot-tall frost giants, each controlled by three operators who made it appear as if these enchanted creatures were casually striding down Broadway.
Upon encountering this unlikely spectacle, people asked the participants or anyone listening some variation of the question: “What is this?” Many took out their phones to document it. One woman on Central Park West held up her phone, saying “look!” to whoever she was talking to. “I don’t know what it is,” she continued. “It’s weird.”
Monica Blum, the president of the Lincoln Square BID, explained before the event that although it took a lot of planning and legwork, she wanted it to be a “spontaneous community procession” for anyone from anywhere to join in.
This year, instead of a Christmas tree, they decorated eight giant London plane trees in Dante Park with sound-sensitive lights whose color and intensity change based on the sounds around them. And the route had to be tweaked to avoid low awnings and scaffolding and to steer the procession past the illuminated plane trees twice.
“Last year people were amazed!” she said. “It’s really to create a sense of amazement and celebration and joy,” she went on, adding: “And I’d like for people afterwards to eat in our restaurants and go shopping.”
Just before the procession began, Art Baer was standing among the throng with his two kids, each of the three holding a mini lantern they had just made in a workshop across the street. “We’re ready for the walk,” he said. “It’s a beautiful wintery night. Community events like this are wonderful to bring people together around the holidays.”
