Illumination Night

The Grand Illumination, or Illumination Night, lit up the cottages of Oak Bluffs for the 140th time on Wednesday night. Fortunately Mary was on the Vineyard with me for the last time this summer and we enjoyed the festivities together.

This grand house is in Ocean Park, a small hop from the focal point of Illumination Night, but still saw fit to celebrate. I think this is where the Norton Antivirus guy lives.

We arrived in the MV Camp Meeting Association Grounds (the spot with all the gingerbread cottages) fashionably late -- there were somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 people already gathered, filling the Tabernacle and sitting on blankets on the grass, blaring songs like "Amazing Grace" and "I've Been Working on the Railroad" in a community sing.

The Tabernacle on the night of the Grand Illumination.

At 9 p.m., scores of paper lanterns hanging from the eaves and balconies of all the cottages were lit, many with candles, some with electric bulbs. The crowd dispersed from the Tabernacle and began a long, slow swirl of awe around the campground. The lanterns were intricate and beautiful, the atmosphere respectful and joyous, and the evening's numbers boggling -- so many glowsticks being swung and tossed by children, so many Illumination participants meandering along cottage lawns, so many delicate lanterns hanging brightly. I had to wonder how long the cottage owners maintain them for this one night of glory, and how the tiny cottages even have space to store so many fragile objects.


James Sanford really dug into the Illumination and blogged it here; the Vineyard Gazette also published a story. Yes, they somehow managed to fit an Illumination Night story in their Obama edition on Friday, an issue riddled with 11 Obama-centric stories and peppered with many other presidentially-tinged pieces. More to come tomorrow, when the President lands on the island for his weeklong stay and I post an entry about the ruckus that's been steadily building on the Vineyard.

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Coda to yesterday's entry: Mediterranean was the initial focus in a Boston Globe article titled "The action begins on the Vineyard." The premise: Although the President isn't here yet, plenty of big-name visitors are. Mediterranean hosted a gala for the cable channel BET with Erykah Badu performing on a stage in our dining room. My manager, Mike Ritchie, a great guy from Toronto, is the first source quoted in the article.