By: Kirsten Serrone, Senior
On a cold, winter afternoon, many locals gather to volunteer and make a tiny town the most unique in its area. With drivers slowing down and stopping to take pictures and videos, the town is filled with peace, love, and beauty during the holiday season. Riegelsville’s Christmas Eve tradition of setting out luminaires on the sidewalks draws lots of attention to this small area, giving a spiritual, warm, and loving feeling of Christmas. However, the work put in to make it happen is the most beautiful of all.
Luckily, we got the chance to do an interview between Jenn Youells and Sabrina Callahan, who is a community member. Sabrina is also a member of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, where this event began. Jenn asked Sabrina how long the town has been doing this luminaire event, and Sabrina says it has been about 12 years now, explaining, “the first couple years it was just around the church, and then we started doing it throughout the entire community,” and she has actually been volunteering for all 12 years. Decorating the town is something she loves to do, and her favorite part is “going around in the cars and setting out the luminaries; it’s a lot of fun, and when people drive by they honk their horns.” The work that everyone puts in is amazing; it takes over 2,000 jugs to decorate almost the entire town! Everyone enjoys the scenery. People driving through will stop the car or slow down to take pictures and videos, and it’s so touching to have that effect on others and bring joy to them.
Another interviewee was Pastor Bradley D. Gow, the pastor of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church. Pastor Bradley has only been the pastor at St. Peter’s for two years now, and has been involved in this event for the same amount of time. His favorite part of this event is the community getting together and seeing the decorations at night because it is “very peaceful and serene and looks very beautiful all throughout the entire community.” Pastor Bradley believes this event adds significant uniqueness to Riegelsville, stating, “ it brings us all together; it ties us together in our faith and as a community.”
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