Jindera Lantern Festival

Next date: Saturday, 01 August 2026 | 05:00 PM

The Jindera Pioneer Museum is hosting this years Lantern Walk, inspired by the German tradition of ‘Laternelaufen’. This festive event is centred around kindness, light, and fostering community spirit by bringing people together. The Lantern Walk celebrates the legend of St Martin of tours, with its origins in Germany and other parts of Europe.

The walk will commence at the Jindera Museum and conclude at the Jindera Village Green. Pretzels, a variety of foods and Glühwein will be available for purchase on completion of the walk.

This event is a part of the Illuminate Our Heritage Festival sponsored by the Jindera Museum. The Museum Tea Room will be transformed on Saturday evening, into an old style Speakeasy, with a variety of food and beverage available to purchase. reservations are required for this -Further details to come.

FREE EVENT!

World premiere public artwork to light up Jindera Lantern Walk

The Jindera Pioneer Museum has secured an extraordinary coup for the region: the world premiere of The Sun and the Moon are Dancing, an immersive inflatable garden of colour, pattern and light by acclaimed Australian artist Matthew Aberline and The Beautiful and Useful Studio.

Presented as part of the museum’s annual Lantern Walk on Saturday August 1, this breathtaking installation invites families and friends to wander, gather, photograph and delight in a magical experience created by an artist whose work has illuminated stages from the United Nations in New York to communities across Australia.

“We believe that nothing like this has ever been experienced in the Greater Hume Shire before and it’s a major triumph for our museum,” said president Margie Wehner.

“What excites us most is how beautifully it will weave into the Lantern Walk.

“As the daylight fades, these sculptural forms will begin to glow among our historic buildings and gardens, adding a new layer of colour and quiet wonder to a place already rich with stories.

“Families will be able to wander through it together discovering pockets of light and imagination that feel perfectly at home in Jindera.”

The Sun and the Moon are Dancing is by day, a vivid printed textile form and creates a bold sculptural landscape of colour and geometric pattern. At dusk and into the evening, the work glows from within, becoming a luminous destination that inspires mystery, imagination and wonder.

This year, the Lantern Walk will build toward a spectacular new finale. After carrying their handmade lanterns through Jindera, participants will arrive at the installation, where they will be invited to contribute their lanterns to the collective artwork, adding their own small lights to the larger glowing garden.

Matthew Aberline is an Australian artist and creative director known for bold, immersive public artworks that fuse decorative craft, storytelling and social impact. Working across inflatables, textiles, light and performance, he creates participatory installations that invite wide audiences - often families - into experiences of wonder, learning and shared creativity.

His projects span collaborations with the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, community-led creative projects for the Art Gallery of NSW, and partnerships with First Nations artists and regional communities across Australia.

“With generations of my family's connection to the area, I’m very excited to bring a new work to Jindera,” said Matthew Aberline.

“This project celebrates kindness, joy, family and friends making things together, and the simple pleasure of gathering around something big, gorgeous and colourful.

“The work is about drawing people away from screens and devices and inviting them into a genuinely beautiful, vibrant space — filled with colour, pattern and the fun of a community working together to make something beautiful.

“It’s called The Sun and the Moon are Dancing because it’s about the relationship between work and play, the real and the imaginary, what we create by ourselves and what we create as a community. It’s all part of a gorgeous dance - and this allows us to reconnect to that little voice inside us that says ‘wow’...

The Jindera Lantern Walk is inspired by the German tradition of Laternelaufen, a centuries old custom where children carry handmade lanterns through their village at dusk. At its heart, Laternelaufen is a celebration of kindness, light and togetherness — values that sit perfectly within the museum’s community minded spirit.

The story behind the tradition centres on St Martin of Tours, a fourth century Roman soldier who became known for his humility and compassion. The most famous tale tells of Martin cutting his cloak in half to share with a freezing beggar — an act of simple, human kindness that has echoed through generations.

Lantern walks honour this moment: families gather, lanterns glowing, to symbolise how one small light — one small kindness — can brighten the world around it.

In Jindera, the Lantern Walk blends this gentle European tradition with the museum’s own heritage setting. Children and adults walk together along Urana Street, carrying lanterns they have made themselves, singing traditional songs and celebrating the warmth of community on a cold winter evening.

This year, that shared tradition will culminate in The Sun and the Moon are Dancing — a new artwork created for Jindera, where individual lanterns, family stories and community spirit come together in one spectacular glowing garden.

As the Jindera Pioneer Museum prepares for construction of its new building, set to commence later this year, and an exciting new phase, the organisation is embracing a broader role within the region’s arts and cultural landscape.

The expansion will open the door to contemporary exhibitions, creative programs and a wider variety of community events, all while preserving the values and stories that have long defined the museum.

The Sun and the Moon are Dancing offers a glimpse of this new direction — a vibrant, imaginative installation that reflects the museum’s commitment to becoming more dynamic and current, without losing sight of its heritage. It marks the beginning of a more creative era for the museum and the community it serves.