Weekly Photo Challenge: Let There Be Light!

Baby’s first Mardi Gras:

A week ago our fair town held its annual “Lighting of the Trees.” Everybody goes downtown where the bands play Christmas music while hot chocolate and hot cider flow, and the mayor flips the switch.

The trees downtown will be lit through the end of Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras in the United States is celebrated from Texas through Florida (roughly Galveston through Pensacola) and ends the night before Lent begins.

It is such a huge part of our culture here that banks, public schools and most government offices are closed. Parades roll nearly every night for the five weeks leading up to Fat Tuesday. Everybody participates in one form or another – it is a festival of lights, a feast for a child’s eyes.

In a couple of weeks, another festival of lights will occur in our neighborhood when we have a Christmas boat parade down the river at the end of our dead-end road – boats of all shapes and sizes will quietly float downstream lit up with Christmas decorations – with spectators lining the banks, back decks, piers and bridges – and ending in the small bay leading to the beaches.

Click here for some incredible light sources around the rest of world.

And thanks, God, for Your light in the world, for You, the source of all our light – without which we would be forever in darkness. Thank You for all the life-giving forms of light you provide us with – especially for my sunshine and rainbows and sunsets over peaceful, sweet dreams. ~~