GARYVILLE, La. — A group in Louisiana has built a 78-foot-long alligator out of wood for a bonfire Christmas Eve along the Mississippi River.
"A little folklore we tell the kids is that the bonfire is to guide Papa Noel down the foggy Mississippi River," Josh Weidert, 33, told CNN.
The group, Blood, Sweat and Bonfires, spent three weeks constructing the wooden alligator, which will be lit aflame at 7 p.m. The group named it Gator Millet. Its head moves and the jaw snaps, WDSU reported.
Shes all done.. #itaintnojoke #bonfireseason2k19 #GBU come out and enjoy!!
Posted by Blood, Sweat, and Bonfires on Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Weidert started helping the group build bonfires when he was 13, CNN reported. In the past, there have been turtles, crawfish and even a pelican, the state bird. The group has to get a permit each year for the display.
So tomorrow we start building our 2019 bonfire which will be an.. 🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🐊🐊 Alligator 🐊🐊 This has been a long time in the...
Posted by Blood, Sweat, and Bonfires on Friday, November 29, 2019
The bonfire tradition harkens to the 1700s when German and French settlers came to the area and would light fires on the way to midnight Mass, according to Louisiana tourism officials.
"We try to use a lot of dead trees because they burn a lot better,” Weidert told CNN. “We’ll go out in the woods and harvest our own materials by hand.”
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