The Headmistress: Bonfires

24 December 2012

Papa Noel Comes To The River Parishes!

Image from The Times-Picayune

The forecast storms managed to stay away until Papa Noel's way was lit along the River Road in St James Parish tonight!

What a sight! After church, we joined the mob: thousands of people, thousands of cars, and over a hundred bonfires up and down the levee! If you missed the original post about this lovely tradition, you can find it here.

Sadly, I am most definitely NOT a very good photographer (especially at night), but some of you indicated you were interested in seeing the fires lit, so....

Imagine this spectacular sight all up and down the River Road, for about eight miles. There were fireworks, too. Maybe in the New Year, I can learn to take pictures at night!

In addition to the thousands of cars, there were TOUR buses winding their way down the narrow River Road with the rest of us; THIS is the way to go!

No Louisiana celebration would be complete without a 'brass band.' It sounded like Mardi Gras!

Once again, Merry Christmas from the Headmistress, the Headmaster, and staff!

We are awaiting major storms tomorrow; we are so happy that the weather held off tonight!

22 December 2012

Allumant la manière pour Papa Noël

South of Baton Rouge, about halfway to New Orleans, the River Parishes have a charming and quite old tradition of lighting the way for Papa Noel (Santa) so he can find the children who live along the Mississippi River. For years and years, families have been building huge structures that are lit every Christmas Eve up and down the levee. We have never seen this lovely celebration, but hopefully this Christmas Eve we will be able to along with my younger son and his wife.

Today, though, we thought we'd make a 'dry run' so we would kind of know where we were going and to see the structures before they are lit. Most of the ones we saw were in Paulina, a little bitty town in St. James Parish. Each family has a particular area of the levee where they build their bonfires, and we were able to see some already built, and some still under construction. It looks like HUGE fun, and from what I understand, Christmas Eve is bumper to bumper traffic along the River Road, with great houseparties going on (if you know someone)!

So, here, for your viewing pleasure, are some of the ones we saw today:

Most were the traditional 'teepee' style structure, and some had willow branches around the outside which, I assume, aids the fire (they burn for hours);