Celebrate The Lighting Of Lenin – And Play Roamin’ Holiday Bazaar Today!!

On Friday, December 4^th, the statue of Lenin in Fremont got its traditional lighting, in a very non-traditional (and hopefully never needed to be repeated) way.

On the first Friday of December the community of Fremont usually comes together to celebrate the season, and light up the Christmas lights on our bronze statue of the dead dictator. Only at the Center of the Universe do we mark the start of the shopping season with Santa, live music, the Chicken Dance, and turning a tyrant into a Christmas tree!

To keep everyone safe, and to adhere to the Governor’s COVID restrictions, the public 2020 Lenin Lighting was cancelled. However, the lights still needed to get lit – so Fremocentrist.com’s Kirby Laney and her mother, the Godfather of Fremont, Suzie Burke, did their best to flip the switch (which normally requires the power of Santa and the pint-sized elves.)

Lenin got lit, as usual, on the First Friday in December. Photo by Adrian Laney, Dec ’20

View the video (on YouTube) if Lenin got lit.

The last few years, the Lenin Lighting has been held to the fine a’capella music of SeaTown Sound – including their inspired version of The Chicken Dance for the circling of the Fremont Festivus pole. A few months ago, when everyone realized that SeaTown Sound would not be able to gather for the Lenin Lighting, the ‘band’ recorded their original lyrics – providing the background music to the 2020 Lenin Lighting.

View the SeaTown Sound video for The Chicken Dance, also on YouTube.

Another change to Fremont Festivus for 2020 is the extension of the Roamin’ Holiday Bazaar bingo game – to December 14^th!

Print out your Roamin’ Holiday Bazaar bingo card, and play now!!

There is still plenty of time to print your bingo card, collect marks from six of the participating businesses, and submit your finished card by December 20^th to be entered in a drawing for $200 in Fremont gift cards! Find a link to download a Roamin’ Holiday Bazaar bingo card on the Fremont Festivus webpage (click here.)

We hope you find yourself in Fremont this holiday season, to shop in person, or on-line. Be safe and stay healthy, so even if you cannot come down to the Center of the Universe in person, enjoy a chance to see the recorded lighting of Lenin. And if we can all keep distant and stop the spread of coronavirus, we hope to be able to safely, socially-distantly celebrate the UN-lighting of Lenin on January 8^th!

Stay tuned!!