Inside the halls of Kingswood College in Kandy, a group of school students bent over sheets of recycled cardboard, strips of old fabric, and salvaged wire frames, shaping them into something luminous. They were not just building lanterns for Vesak. They were rethinking what a lantern could be made of and what it could stand for.
The project is called Pahanya, a Vesak lantern festival with an environmental conscience. Organized by Zero Plastic University of Peradeniya, a ZeroPlastic Movement initiative rooted in one of Sri Lanka’s most respected universities, the program brings together cultural celebration and environmental conservation in a way that feels neither forced nor artificial. It simply asks young people a question worth asking: can tradition and sustainability exist in the same space?
Lanterns Built from What Others Throw Away
At the heart of Pahanya is an eco-friendly lantern competition. Students at Kingswood College are invited to design and build Vesak lanterns using only recyclable, reusable, and environmentally sustainable materials. No single-use plastics. No polystyrene. Instead, the raw materials come from what might otherwise end up in a waste pile. The challenge pushes participants to think creatively about resources, to find beauty in materials that most people overlook, and to understand the real cost of waste.
The competition is more than an arts and crafts exercise. Each lantern tells a story about innovation and environmental responsibility. Students work in teams, strengthening collaboration and problem-solving skills as they navigate the constraints of building with sustainable materials. The designs draw inspiration from cultural values tied to Vesak, the Buddhist festival of light, while reflecting a growing awareness of plastic pollution and its consequences for communities and ecosyste…
