Lighting the Way for Papa Noel's Sleigh

Following up on our story from yesterday about our get-away, I wanted to show you an interesting tradition that folks that live on the river between New Orleans and Baton Rouge have done for generations.  As we were driving along River Road, up on the tops of the levees we spotted some pyramid-like construction going on.  Can you spot it?

Made with willow logs and positioned about 150 feet apart from each other, we saw numerous things like this in various stages of construction.

So what are these things?  Well, the people of St. James Parish, specifically around Lutcher and Paulina have been building these Christmas bonfires for generations. Families build them as a social event.  We saw many pickup trucks with family and friends busy at work constructing the bonfire. They had barbecue pits and campfires going as they worked and seemed to be having a great time.

Here is one that is almost complete that Tricia is standing beside.  You can see that there is a pole in the center with four poles forming a pyramid.  Logs are stacked along the edges and then cut up logs are thrown in the middle.

The weekend we were at the Bed and Breakfast in Paulina, they were having The Festival of the Bonfires in Lutcher.  We climbed up to the top of the levee as they had set one of the bonfires ablaze and talked to some friendly guys who explained the tradition.  Beau told us that they had been building these each year since they were two feet tall.  So did their daddies.  And their daddies' daddies.  These guys were pretty happy as they had just returned from the Superdome in New Orleans watching the Lutcher football team win the 3A State Football Championship two times in a row.

Families build the bonfires and on Christmas Eve they light them up, enjoying the warmth and the warmth of each others' company and then they walk along the top of the levee to church at midnight. They say the bonfires help light the way for Papa Noel and his sleigh to find where all the good boys and girls live on the bayou.