By Riley Fontana
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Sherborn is getting ready for its Water and Fire Festival on September 21 as a part of its 350th anniversary celebration. Part of this festival includes paper bag luminaries decorated by the Sherborn community.
All ages filled the tree house to help decorate white paper bags to fill up Farm Pond later this month. Spread out on tables were hole punches, markers, crayons, paints and so much more. There was no wrong way to decorate, but patrons were encouraged to honor their favorite parts of Sherborn. The goal of these decorated bags is to serve as makeshift lanterns during the festival to light up the path, a candle placed into each one.
Some opted to cut out faces and designs so the candlelight would leak out onto the ground and others drew pictures of wildlife and flowers. There was no shortage of supplies and bags to decorate and many opted to decorate several. This participant ran and the librarians allowed space for creative freedom. Supplies were shared between tables as patrons swapped ideas and stories about their town.
Patrons were encouraged to take bags home to decorate with those unable to make the drop-in time and bring them back to the library. Bags were able to be created at home as long as they are white paper lunch-style bags and returned on time. The more bags made the more exciting this event will become. There is no wrong way to decorate and they will all be celebrated by the whole town, as each was carefully created by a different resident and brings their personality to life.
The Water and Fire Festival will be full of these illuminated paper bags designed by Sherborn. Anyone was welcome to design bags and return them to the library at the beginning of this month to have them displayed during the celebration. The luminaries will be on display at Farm Pond on September 21 as a part of the Sherborn 350th celebrations. This festival is sure to be a big hit as everyone searches for the bags that they designed.
