HYDE PARK — Hyde Parkers can welcome 2024 with an evening of candle lighting, wish-making and caroling that offers families, seniors and sleepyheads an accessible way to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
The New Year’s Eve Luminarias event takes place 4-6 p.m. Sunday on the Nichols Park hill behind the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club, 5480 S. Kenwood Ave.
Attendees can create and decorate flameless luminarias, or paper bag lanterns, as well as write their wishes for the new year and place them in a spiral among other neighbors’ lanterns.
A sing-along of non-denominational holiday songs starts at 4:30 p.m. and will provide background music as neighbors create the display.
“It’s a meaningful, reflective and beautiful way to mark the new year,” event organizer Michele Beaulieux said. “It’s basically a community art project. … We’ll have as many luminarias as people [who] come. It’ll spread out bigger and bigger and bigger — across the whole park, if it happens.”
The event started in 2020 as neighbors sought to safely gather after a year of pandemic lockdowns, Beaulieux said. The celebration is co-sponsored by the Nichols Park Advisory Council and the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club’s early childhood program.
Though Beaulieux didn’t attend the initial gathering, the 2021 gathering made clear to her that the celebration should become a neighborhood tradition, she said.
“They weren’t sure if someone was going to help organize it [in 2022], and I was like, ‘OK, this has got to continue,'” said Beaulieux, a Nichols Park council member.
About 75 people turned out for last year’s celebration, filtering in and out throughout the afternoon. Neighbors can “stop by for 5 or 10 minutes if you want,” but are encouraged to stay and see the final display, Beaulieux said.
“Not everybody wants to stay up until midnight. If you have small children, or [if you’re] older … you don’t necessarily want to stay out that late,” she said. “Maybe you don’t want to drive on New Year’s Eve, since roads can be a little more dangerous that night. This is a local, community event that people can just walk to in the neighborhood.”
Beaulieux encouraged others to start similar gatherings in their own community parks. With paper bags, tea lights and sand as the only needed materials, it’s an affordable, low-stakes way to unite people and create a neighborhood ritual, she said.
“I think it’s important for people to have a way to reflect and mark the new year and just have a tradition,” she said. “Together, we can create our hopes for 2024.”
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