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Lantern will light up First Night activities

December 29, 2007 12:35 am

Fredericksburg will trade the pear drop for the lantern lighting at this year's First Night celebration.

At the stroke of midnight Monday, a replica of the Fredericksburg Lamp will be illuminated at the corner of Caroline and Charlotte streets downtown.

This is the ninth year of First Night Fredericksburg, the city's art-focused, alcohol-free New Year's Eve party.

The event attracted more than 7,000 area residents last year.

This year, event planners are hoping that more than 50 live performances and a slate of new artistic activities will keep turnout strong.

"We're looking forward to a great event," said Sarah Byrne, special events and marketing coordinator for the city's Parks and Recreation Department.

This year, in Fredericksburg United Methodist Church's green at the corner of Princess Anne and Hanover streets, folks will be able to decorate paper lanterns that will be displayed throughout the event.

Across the street, in front of the Masonic Lodge on Princess Anne, there will be a resolution wall, where participants can write their hopes for 2008 on a cutout replica of the Fredericksburg skyline.

This year will also be the debut of two new symbols for First Night: the pineapple and the lantern.

They're replacing the pear, which sparked a bit of First-Night controversy back in 2005, when a teenager knocked the long-running pâpier-mache pear to the ground as it dropped during the midnight countdown.

That launched a process to design a new pear, which was riddled with drama, as the artist who created the damaged pear claimed ownership of the entire pear concept.

After two years with a new, fiber-optic pear that cost about $1,700 to light, First Night organizers started wondering whether it was time for something new to drop as the new year dawned.

After a few community meetings, they settled on a pineapple and a lantern.

The lantern is meant to evoke the Fredericksburg Lamp, designed by the late Allen Howison Green II. The pineapple has long been a symbol of hospitality.