Community Corner

Peace Candle Brings Huge Crowd to Easton

Annual Peace Candle celebration includes tuba players, ice sculptures, and Easton's 100-year-old historian.

Hundreds of people filled Easton's Centre Square Friday night for the annual Peace Candle lighting.

The actual lighting is just a small part of the event, which also included a mummers band, ice sculptors, a petting zoo, horse-drawn carriage rides, and the Easton debut of TubaChristmas.

(The name only tells part of the story, as the group plays Christmas tunes on a variety of brass instruments, including the tuba.)

Find out what's happening in Palmer-Forkswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

This year, the candle was lit by Easton resident Cindy Lytle, whose boyfriend, Tom Sestak, won the Easton Holiday Committee's Imperial Illuminator Auction. 

Sestak won an auction to light the candle, but then turned over the honors to Lytle, "because he's a gentleman," said Sandy O'Brien Werner of the city's holiday committee.

Find out what's happening in Palmer-Forkswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The committee has been raising money to replace the candle.

The tradition may date back to the 1950s, but the candle itself has -- James Bond-like -- been through a few different incarnations.

The current version is 22 years old, and fundraising efforts to update it are about halfway to their $25,000 goal, Mayor Sal Panto said Friday.

In addition to the candle lighting, Panto awarded the annual Gretchen Wrenshaw Community Caring Award to Jane Moyer, the long-time librarian and current historian -- at age 100 -- at the Sigal Museum.

Easton often gets a bad rap, Moyer said, adding "I'm proud of our town. We're full of history!"

"That would be a good slogan for the city," Panto said. "Easton: Full of history."


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Palmer-Forks