on the longest night, in the upper valley, seven lamps are lit along the sill of the meeting house, one for each year of the most recent darkness. by darkness it means: any seven-year stretch in which something difficult happened to the village. by the custom of the place, the seven years need not be consecutive, and need not be agreed upon — each household chooses its own seven. the lamps are not labelled.
the oldest record is a churchwarden's account from 1689 — a sum of twopence for "seven lamps and one for spare." the spare is still bought. it is set in the back of the meeting house, in case any lamp goes out before the night ends, which it never quite does. children are told the spare is for next year.
today the lamps are mostly tin, with kerosene wicks, kept in a low drawer the rest of the year. lighting them is unhurried. one elderly resident lights each in turn, and pauses, and does not say why. afterwards everyone goes home through the cold and does not stay to watch. the lamps burn alone until dawn, when a child is sent down to put them out.
— field note: lamp four flickered three times before it held. no one mentioned it. that, too, is part of the rite.