Life in the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association (informally called the Camp Ground) is a unique experience, and never more so than on Illumination Night. Each August the event draws thousands of visitors, as residents adorn their cottages with lanterns in a tradition dating back to 1868.
Bases loaded, bottom of the ninth, two outs, one ball, two strikes. At this point, it could be anyone’s game. Little League bragging rights are on the line.
Brightly colored paper lanterns hanging from gingerbread houses were turned on in unision, and by 8:51 p.m. Wednesday the Camp Ground was aglow.
Come dusk tonight, the Victorian gingerbread houses at the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs will be a magical fantasy land, aglow with light from lanterns.
On August 20, the Camp Ground will turn into a fantasy land of Victorian gingerbread houses and hundreds of paper lanterns hanging from porches. Welcome once again to the Grand Illumination.
At dusk last night a single lantern lit by Gordon Long and his son Roy made its way down the center aisle of the Tabernacle in the Oak Bluffs Camp Ground. There was a collective gasp from the large crowd gathered inside the Tabernacle and around blankets and picnic baskets on the lawn.