Annual light fair at St Luke’s, Formby

For several years now we have hosted an annual light fair on the Friday or Saturday closest to Halloween.

We transform our churchyard with fairy lights and solar lights, and welcome families from our local community to come and celebrate light on a dark night. Entering via a light trail – with lights slung through the trees – they hunt for clues to help the piece together a Bible verse which speaks of light.

They emerge into a the clearing where there are s’mores round a roaring fire, crafts, simple fair games (think bat-the-rat and rolling pennies) with sweet prizes. In the church itself is face painting and glow in the dark tattoos, and if they feel hungry, we have hot dogs, veggie dogs and drinks on sale at cost price.

The highlight of the evening is the fire performance done by a member of our congregation who is a dancer and fire performer. After the fire dance, a short and thought-provoking message of light and hope in our darkness is shared, before people head out with a goody bag containing sweets, a Halloween gospel activity or tract, and invitations to our services.

It’s been a surprisingly well received and popular event, an amazing opportunity to hold out Christ, and we’ve seen families coming back year on year. Holding it on Halloween itself last year brought new families in and we plan to do the same again this year.