Stars sparkled, pink and gold and orange lanterns bobbed, and a soft wind played among the chimes in the Camp Ground Wednesday night for the 104th annual Illumination Night.
The Camp Ground lit up for the 148th Grand Illumination Wednesday. Before the lanterns were turned on, crowds packed the Tabernacle for a concert by the Vineyard Haven Band and a community sing.
The 148th Grand Illumination is tonight at the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs. At sundown, the gingerbread houses will glow with the light of thousands of lanterns, part of a summertime tradition dating to the 1860s. Events begin at 7:30 p.m.
Tonight gingerbread houses will be aglow once again for Grand Illumination Night, a cherished Camp Ground tradition for almost 150 years. The action gets underway at 7:30 p.m., and the first lantern is lit at dusk.
The readers of the Gazette will please bear with us this week for the lack of extended news of local affairs. We are publishing the Camp Meeting Herald, daily and it occupies so much of time and labor that we are unable to pay that degree of attention to the Gazette as is our custom. We reproduce a number of articles from the Herald, which are well worth reading.
Life in the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association (informally called the Camp Ground) is a unique experience, and never more so than on Illumination Night. Each August the event draws thousands of visitors, as residents adorn their cottages with lanterns in a tradition dating back to 1868.
