What Is the Tradition of ‘Luminary Lane’ in Sioux Falls?

Sunday night, once again marked a very special evening during the holiday season in Sioux Falls.

This past Sunday, families in the Park Ridge area celebrated one of the oldest holiday traditions in the city each year, as they lined the streets of their Sioux Falls neighborhood with luminaries.

Homes just off 26th Street and along Hawthorne Avenue were lit up with candles on Sunday evening, (December 17) for all those who walked or drove by to enjoy.

Get our free mobile app

Dakota News Now reports the event was all part of the annual Luminary Lane celebration, a holiday tradition that goes back for generations here in the Sioux Empire.

Each year residents living in this storied Sioux Falls neighborhood set up their glowing holiday displays that are showcased for just one evening during the Christmas season.

Sioux Falls resident Dan Boadwine told Dakota News Now, “We met our first person in the neighborhood about the first week we moved in and I think the second sentence that was conversed was, ‘Hey, Luminary Lane, do you know about it? We got to do all these things to set up,’” So we were welcomed in pretty quickly with all that information.”

According to Dakota News Now, it's pretty much an unwritten rule that every family living in this Sioux Falls Parkridge neighborhood participate in the annual tradition.

This holiday tradition has become a very special one for not only the residents living in the neighborhood but all the other Sioux Falls families who choose to attend the annual event.

Dakota News Now reports the origin of this holiday tradition designed to help provide light and joy began back in the '60s as an idea put in play by a former pastor at First Baptist Church.

The tradition has carried on several decades later in Sioux Falls thanks to families like the Boadwines and others.

As Boadwine told Dakota News Now, "Nowadays when you have things that move so fast and there’s so much division just in the world, it’s nice to have things like this that you can use to pull people together, even if it’s not for a common idea. It’s just for a common spirit and looking for the joy and connection with other people.”

Even though the event is over for another year, families living in this Park Ridge neighborhood all agree that they are already looking forward to the tradition of Luminary Lane again next year.

Source: Dakota News Now