We had our annual Lighting of City Hall last night here in Norwich CT, which now calls itself "Connecticut's Christmas City" (and no other municipality cares enough to contest this assertion, it seems) and it was lovely, if a bit on the really long side.
I can remember taking my kids to this the day after Thanksgiving and it took about 45 minutes; a little speechifying, a couple of carols of the season, an arrival of a Jolly Red Elf, a countdown from ten and LIGHTS! And those of us assembled, cheered, wished one another a happy holiday (again) and went home.
In recent years, to include and involve all those who see inclusion and involvement as 'good things' more and more people, 'neighbors I haven't yet met' I like to call them, get up and sing or do puppets or sing in large groups or do carols and what was a brisk forty five minutes in the cold and the dark was, by last night, over two hours.
Again, last night, it was cold in New England in mid-fall. Probably about 28 Fahrenheit with a light (8 to ten knot) breeze, and the longer the night went on the colder it got. I always remember smiling when the lights on City Hall are first turned on but I also have to remember that every night between now and Christmas when I drive by City Hall, the lights will be on.
I watched parents with small children and infants leave before the lighting because their little ones had gotten too cold to stay. I was so cold, I gave thought to time-sharing someone else's child so I, too, had an excuse to leave. By the time the lights on City Hall came on at about twenty-six minutes after seven, we all sort of shrugged and began the March of the Penguins back to our homes.
-bill kenny
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