The annual Midsummer Night's Gleam unfolds this month to enthrall young and old.

The highlight: thousands of luminarias twinkling along the paths and trails of the garden. The mesmerizing effects of the luminarias are especially pronounced after sunset, when the night's darkness is illuminated by the paper lanterns that weave through the garden like sparkling ribbons.

The Gleam concept came from landscape designer and author Lorraine Kuck, who had visited New Mexico. There, luminarias are used on house eaves and all along garden paths.

The event was conceived as an event with no electric lights, only natural light accentuating the richly textured leaves and trees. Paul Weissich, president of the Friends of the Honolulu Botanical Gardens, created the event's play on words. The Gleam first twinkled in 1970 and has occurred each year since then.

Troop 42 and Pack 42 of the Boy and Cub Scouts set up, light and collect the thousands of luminarias used in the event. Hundreds of other volunteers pour in countless hours behind the scenes and during the event to ensure the success of the Gleam.

The event evolved from family and children activities in the early daylight hours into a wonderland as the thousands of luminarias start glowing and peeking through the plants and trees.

Several more famous trees in Foster Garden, including a magnificent cannonball tree, will be backlit and showcased. From its massive trunk spring hundreds of snake-like branches that recoil with the contrasting thick peach/pink flowers and heavy woody fruits.

Be sure to check out the five gardens on O'ahu: Foster, Ho'omaluhia, Koko Crater, Lili'uo-kalani and Wahiawa, grouped collectively under the name the Honolulu Botanical Gardens.

Participants can bring the children and family, enjoy a picnic or dinner in the garden, tour the extraordinary botanical collection, join in on the numerous keiki activities or listen to the music of the Pacific Fleet Jazz Band, as well as by Harp Ensemble. There will be a lion dance, games, crafts and mural painting, a magician, belly-dancing and tales by master storyteller Jeff Gere.

Besides a summer haunted house and fishing, a special treat of the Gleam is the Tanabata Wishing Tree, an ancient custom in which participants can write down wishes, especially aspirations of love and fidelity, on pieces of paper that will be adorned as strips on the Tanabata tree.

The legend of Tanabata originated from the love that grew between two stars, Weaver, the youngest daughter of a celestial emperor, and Shepherd, a young commoner of lowly birth. They had two children, a boy and girl. When the emperor learned of his daughter's new life, he was outraged and took extreme measures to separate the two lovers on opposite sides of the Milky Way galaxy.

The two remained supremely devoted to each other and the emperor made a small concession: He allowed his daughter to meet her lover once a year on the seventh month of the lunar calendar. So the stars, Vega (the Weaver) and Altair (the Herdsman) renew their pledge of love yearly in July.