posted 12-17-2003 04:59 PM         

Today, I counted 78 bonfires along a three mile stretch of the river road along the MS River. Most of the bonbfires are teepee shape like the one in the first pics. Others are built with a little more flair or themes...

Here's teepee shape one of my nephew & friends built. One of my brothers painted the Sugar Bowl emblems for the LSU vs Oklahoma National Championship game on Jan. 4th. He plans to paint the football field around the 50 yard line insignas...

Here's a fire truck...

Here's a shrimp boat...

When I was a kid, we used diesel fuel to light them. Now a days they still use diesel fuel on the insides. However, they line the outside with fire crackers and set those off as a fuse to ignite the bonfires. In the old days, we would cover teh outsides with cane reed (bamboo). The bamboo would pop and that was our fireworks...

posted 12-18-2003 09:25 PM         

Bonfires... a way of life, at least in the south, when I was growin up there too.... I believe it was Texas A&M, an Engineering/Mechanical school (too).. that recently had one that resulted in one/more deaths... thus the 'ban'...

Many years ago this was done even at the high school level... everyone did it at homecomings... then sometime, maybe in the mid 60s it pretty much stopped..... at that level.

Wasnt nearly so well planned out then.. it was just 'stuff' piled high and light a match!

posted 12-22-2003 08:14 AM         

Illuminating experience

Bonfire tradition sheds light on culture as well as levees

By SAMUEL R. IRWIN
Special to The Advocate

GRAMERCY -- The Christmas Eve bonfires of St. James Parish have been a tradition in the river parishes for as long as anyone can remember.
Guy Poche, 68, the former mayor of Lutcher, reminisced, "We used to put cane reeds in the bonfire and they'd pop like firecrackers."

Every year, residents of the river towns of Lutcher, Gramercy and Paulina use the holiday season after Thanksgiving to assemble logs and kindling in stacks 20 feet high for nearly 100 bonfires that will be lit atop the levee protecting the eastern bank of the Mississippi River.

Weather conditions permitting, the bonfires will all be set afire at 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

Whether the bonfire tradition began as a carryover of Old World French and German folk customs, a celebration of the sugar-cane harvest or to light the way for Midnight Mass travelers in the fog-prone area, one thing is certain: Anyone under the age of 6 believes the sole purpose of the bonfires is to illuminate the river so Papa Noel, the south Louisiana Santa Claus, can find their homes.

In fact, many children of all ages believe just that.

Terry Borne, the middle-aged mayor of Gramercy, said the bonfire tradition started at least 100 years ago, and he agreed with the under-6 crowd. "Ever since I was a little kid, I was told it was to light the way for Santa Claus."

In the same breath, Borne hedged ever so slightly, though: "But probably, the real reason for the bonfires was so the ships on the river could see through the fog on the levee."

What is certain is these three river communities promote the Festival of the Bonfires without the crass commercialism rampant during the holiday season.

"This does not generate money other than a bonfire permit fee to help with the $2 million insurance policy the parish has to buy," Borne said. "We're just trying to make a spectacle, that's all.

"We enjoy outsiders coming in and experiencing a little bit of our way of life. You can go into any of the open-houses and eat anything from gator sauce piquante and red bean gumbo to cookies and cakes," Borne said.

The wooden fuel for the bonfires generally consists of branches and trunks of scrub willow trees. As any fisherman can attest, the willow is ubiquitous along Louisiana bayous and rivers and in the swamps, but willows are now in short supply along the St. James Mississippi River shore.

"The batture used to be full of willows when I was a kid," Borne said. "After years of making bonfires from the trees right here by our house, now we have to find the trees wherever we can."

Gesturing toward his own bonfire construction site, Borne said, "We had to go all the way to LaPlace to cut these logs."

Most of the bonfire structures are built in the shape of a four- or six-sided pyramid-like stacks, although there is one structure in the shape of a shrimp boat, complete with booms and nets, and another designed to replicate a firetruck.

Some builders, not content with a simple wood structure, take advantage of all of their allotted levee space and paint holiday tributes on the grassy slopes.

One group has painted a replica of the 2004 Nokia Sugar Bowl football field complete with facsimiles of LSU and Oklahoma football helmets.

Borne said that the Christmas Eve bonfire tradition has garnered so much publicity during the last 25 years, a certain amount of organization and regulation became necessary.

"We're expecting 40,000 to 50,000 visitors on Christmas Eve," Borne said.

The bonfire tradition requires extra police and volunteer fire department firefighters to be on standby.

Gone are the days when bonfire builders could light their fires at any time.

Now, the creators of the willow log structures set fire to all of them at 7 p.m. if, and only if, the community fire chiefs determine that the wind is blowing favorably and give the OK. "That's probably why they don't do the bonfires across the river," Borne said.

"At this time of year, the wind generally blows from the north, away from the houses and out onto the river."

Most of the bonfires are clustered along the big river from Gramercy to Paulina. However, if a visitor travels north on the River Road, isolated groups of two or three of the Christmas conflagrations can be discovered all the way to the Sunshine Bridge in Donaldsonville.

Borne enjoys building the bonfires with his son, Kyle, and his friends.

"It keeps the young people out of trouble and it teaches them how to work as a group," Borne said. "They like to put on a nice display."

For information, call 800-367-7852 or visit http://www.stjamesla.com.

posted 12-23-2003 12:39 PM         

quote:

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Originally posted by CTProwler:
... My worry would be getting arrested. Its on my to do list, thats for sure.

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Getting arrested isn't all its cracked up to be. Just ask AC. (On his behalf, to save face, I won't re-post the pic here.)

posted 12-23-2003 05:35 PM         

As far as the bonfires, I would love to see that. As others have mentioned, you all know how to live down there!