PEMBERVILLE, Ohio — Jokingly referred to by the locals as “a blip on the road,” New Rochester, an unincorporated Ohio community of about 60 people, is hard to miss on Christmas Eve.
That’s because local volunteers “light the way for the Christ child” into the community by lining about three miles of North River and New Rochester roads with 500 luminarias.
The long-burning votive candles nestled in one-gallon, sand-weighted plastic milk cartons also are placed in front of the local cemetery and around St. Paul Lutheran Church.
“New Rochester is a little blip on the road. Most people pass through, but you know, it’s a community,” said resident Terry Hoepf. “And the luminarias tradition is a thing that holds it together.”
He was one of about 20 volunteers, residents, and family members, who had just finished building the luminarias in a local barn and started putting them up near the intersection of New Rochester and North River as they lit the candles.
Joe Frederick, who is considered the “unofficial mayor” of New Rochester, said the 44-year tradition is “really our identity.”