Season of Light

This is it: Deewali just over, Hannukah just beginning, and Christmas getting a head of steam up; Kwanzaa thereafter.
The lights have gone on in Rochester, Michigan.
I believe I have told this story, how I wuz dragged, grumbling and mumbling, to look at some Xmas froo-froo decorations and lights one year; how I stood on the corner of University and Main and sucked in my breath with amazement, my brain reeling from the sight! I had suddenly been transported across interstellar distances to the exact middle of a globular cluster of brilliant and searing stars - of all the colors of the rainbow - or spectrometer, keeping with the Hubbelesque metaphor.

It was Las Vegas without the sleaze! It was Tokyo without the traffic! It was the Big Apple without the annoying Big Apple-ers!

It is locally referred to as the big Lagniappe. This is a Creole word meaning a gift, usually given by shopkeepers to valued customers. It is said to derive from Quecha through Spanish and finally through French: la (the) + nyapa (gift).
According to Mark Twain, it was pronounced "lanny-yap" in his day.
I was surprised when I heard this. I was unaware of any Creole influence in Rochester, Michigan. I have been there, and I have heard absolutely no one swear "Tabernac!!" or any such thing, not even a "sacre bleu!" or "merde!".  But there you have it: noonday sun and calm and - bingo! - the mist of French envelops le monde.