Attleboro’s La Salette Christmas Festival of Lights Opening Date Announced

Deck the halls because Christmas is coming, and so is the 71st annual Christmas Festival of Lights at Attleboro's historic National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, more affectionally referred to as La Salette.

One of the most treasured events of the Christmas holiday season, less than an hour away from the Greater New Bedford area, attracts thousands of families from throughout the region each year.

The National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette website boasts 135 new displays for this year's festival.

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The National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette at 947 Park Street, built in 1952 on land purchased 10 years earlier by the La Salette Missionaries, officially opened on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 1953.

The shrine's website says, "On September 19, 1846, the Blessed Mother appeared to two shepherd children, Maximim Giraud and Melanie Calvat, in La Salette, France, and left them with the message of reconciliation to be spread to all people in the world."

"Six years later, the apparition of Our Lady in La Salette led to the founding of a Religious Order, the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette, founded to serve as a perpetual remembrance of Mary's merciful apparition," according to the site.

This year's Christmas Festival of Lights, featuring more than 300,000 brightly colored LED Christmas lights, runs from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. nightly beginning Friday, November 23 through January 1.

The Christmas Festival of Lights features special masses, including on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, performances by the beloved Father Pat, photos with Santa, a carousel, hayride and the International Creche Museum.

Additional information and directions can be found on the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette website. The festival is free and open to the public.