WBRZ - Baton Rouge

NEW ORLEANS - A Christmas Eve tradition continues this weekend in south Louisiana with the lighting of huge bonfires along the Mississippi river.

It's a tradition that dates back more than 100 years. Forty-five-year-old BoBilly Bourgeois says he's been taking part since he was big enough to walk.

He says his father and his grandfather had built them before him, and it's still a family endever.

Thousands gather to watch the free show in or near towns such as Gramercy, Lutcher and Paulina, about 50 miles west of New Orleans.