This week, I went with a purely emotional connection to light, only because the following picture took me there. After I parked my car one day this week and started walking towards my apartment, i was excited by these fun Christmas lights lighting up the back part of the community. (Some other apartments have started putting up their lights as well, but most people display them on their balcony, facing in towards the center of the community. It was such a pleasant surprise to see one on the outside!) Christmas lights, naturally, evoke a multitude of emotions in me. It brings me back, again obviously, to New York City, and even to Hungary as a child. Christmas always has pure bliss to it, unlike New Years, which is almost bittersweet. Also, immediately, images filled my head, wish surprising a great deal of detail. As I walked passed these simple Christmas lights, I remembered when I was younger, and we would walk through our old neighborhood in Brooklyn to see the MAGNIFICENT castles of lights that went on for blocks and blocks (I inserted an image of that too, and a link, and a video haha.) I remembered the lights illuminating the snow that was falling, almost as if small pieces of light were falling from the sky. There is even a soundtrack to this memory: the mechanical music that lights, blow up Santa's, and little train sets on display make. We don't need carolling in Brooklyn, we've got the machines doing it alllll night!
Then after the two minute walk back to my apartment, I got to my front door, and realized that mere Christmas lights evoked such vivid images in my head, and such real emotions in me. Although it was light that was symbolic that created such happiness in me, representing a holiday with a great deal of memories, I'd be interested in what lighting can enhance the wintery, holiday cheer on stage.
I honestly couldn't just pick one, so its really worth your time to just take a look:
https://www.google.com/search?q=dyker+heights+christmas+lights&espv=2&biw=1600&bih=732&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=d398VPvWHsuvogTm3YLwAw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg
(and a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBbvGIjUNZg)
Verano Place, Irvine Xmas
Bay Ridge/Dyker Heights Xmas (of course I had to put the most extravagant, but you know..)
I agree about emotional connections to light! Those little strung up Christmas lights on the balcony are really nothing to boast about, however, they do elicit a sense of excitement for the upcoming season!
ReplyDeleteI love Christmas lights - you have to go to 2 places in So Cal - one is in Fountain Valley - a guys that decorates his house with more than a million LED lights (http://www.yelp.com/biz/fountain-valley-56-000-lights-christmas-house-fountain-valley) and also Balboa Island for their christmas lights competition - it is great
ReplyDeleteChristmas defines so much of what we love about light and our emotional connection to it :)
Nice post
Ah thank you for the SoCal tips, I will definitely try and check them out this year!
DeleteChristmas lights! Clearly I like them as Blair and I have them up in the apartment all year round. I'm terrible at being motivated to decorate, but I do support it and enjoy the fruits of the labor of others ;)
ReplyDeletedid you see the video of Brooklyn xmas lights? its intense!
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