Festival of Lights December 8

The city has venerated the Virgin Mary since the Middle Ages and placed itself under her protection in 1643, the year when the south of France was affected by the plague: the aldermen of Lyon, the provost of merchants and the notables then made a vow to pay homage to the Virgin every year if the plague epidemic ceased. As the epidemic ceased, the people kept their promise and paid homage to the Virgin every year.

Since that date, a solemn municipal procession has gone from the Saint-Jean cathedral to the sanctuary of the Virgin on the hill of Fourvière (to the Saint-Thomas chapel in Lyon then the Notre-Dame de Fourvière basilica after its construction) every September 8 (and not December 8), the day of the consecration of the city to the Virgin, on the day of the feast of her Nativity, to offer her candles and gold shields: this is the Vow of the Aldermen.

December 8, the feast day of the Immaculate Conception, was chosen in 1852 to inaugurate the statue of the Blessed Virgin placed on the bell tower of the old chapel of Fourvière, an inauguration that should have taken place on September 8, but which was postponed for weather reasons. The rain intervened once again; however, the people of Lyon, having waited three months, did not want to cancel the celebration and lit the candles they had prepared.

Since 1852, the festival has been held every year.. Tradition has it that each family living in the part illuminated on December 8th keeps with its Christmas decorations, its assortment of December 8th glasses, thick and sometimes colored. These glasses filled with a candle are called "lumignons" or "lanterns". From November, you can find bags of these famous short, fluted candles like cakes in stores, as well as assortments of glasses. On the evening of December 8th, the candles are lit and placed in the glasses placed on the windowsill.