The night was pitch black and the rain was hammering down with wind that threatened to blow down trees and disconnect the Christmas lights. If you didn’t know better, you would think that staging an outdoor event on a night like this would be an act of abject futility. Perhaps it was due to the lack of options for celebrational activities on a small island, or perhaps the locals are just optimistic and unstoppable. Whatever the case, Light Up Bowen, drew throngs of revelers.
Up at Artisan Square, the carolers began caroling, faces shiny wet even under umbrellas. The homemade rice paper lanterns began dissolving, and children made the most of the moment, waving glow sticks and splashing in the deepest puddles. Like the Whos down in Whoville, the voices still rose in song. Peter King helped out, picking up and dropping off with a bus lit up like a disco, strings of coloured lights all around the vehicle as he tried getting around the Square. The group walked down the trail guided by lanterns to the lower part of the cove where more merchants gave out hot drinks. Children up on a balcony over a clothing store enacted a nativity scene while keeping watch over the bone-soaked audience. Santa made an appearance for the sticky handed candy-cane carrying kids.
Somehow, it was as if the rain had given the water-logged crowd a feeling of “being in this together.” There was a shared experience of disbelief and victory; island folks standing together and singing in the rain.
