Christmas must be round the corner because once again St Helena took to the street for the annual Festival of Lights. This relatively new event has become the highlight of the Christmas event calendar as half of St Helena’s population take to the streets to watch and participate in a parade through Jamestown . With the town dressed up like a huge moving Christmas tree the precision winds its way slowly down through the centre of town with floats, cars, bike, people, prams and pushchairs all kitted out with fairy lights.
This time last year we turned up with a pair of glow sticks each, in what turned out to be an embarrassingly poor show. This year we would not make that mistake again. I wore a total of 100 fairy lights, spiralled around my body from tip to toe. Bev donned blue lights around her boots and skirt, cleverly held in place with clothes pegs. And the boys had fairy lights around their heads and enjoyed their “light saber” flashing glow sticks.
As we strolled slowly through town, dancing to Christmas tunes played loudly from the backs of the floats we had Christmas snow fall on and around us as we watched the statue of liberty, and Air Traffic Control Tower and the RMS St Helena pass us by.
Saints community spirit embrace these events like no other and what is achieved on an Island where stuff is hard to get hold of is remarkable. A truly brilliant and inspiring night of fun, frolics and festivities. I can’t wait for the next one.
Two Years in the Atlantic. 