NORWAY – Cast under a cold, starry night, 31 carolers sang their way through the village Friday in a torchlight parade.

The wassailers were joined by three horses, two wagons and several dogs in their 1.5-mile trip. Some walked, some rode and mostly everybody sang.

Motorists stopped.

Villagers along the route waved from their windows. Some were even enticed out onto their porches to better hear the carols and ponder the sight and sound of clomping horses, who forced big bursts of steam high into the air from their nostrils.

Ben Murphy, 5, and Tesla Whitaker, 6, pink-cheeked and smiling, agreed that although it was indeed cold, it was fun. The West Paris children said they enjoyed singing their favorite carols.

For Ben it was “Up on a Rooftop” and Tesla “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

“Singing made walking warmer,” Ben said.

In lieu of real torches the group opted for flashlights.

“Much safer for the kids,” said Lesley Dean, president of the Norway Business Association, co-sponsor of the event with the Sun Journal.

Walkers led the parade, followed by a the single-horse-drawn Oakhurst Dairy wagon, driven by Bud Smith of Hollis.

Next in the procession was a large, horse-drawn wagon – big enough for at least a dozen people – driven by Ernest and Sandy Garcia of West Paris.

“It was fun and to look up in the sky and see the stars out made it real nice,” said Mary Garuti, 37, of Otisfield.

She was joined by her daughter Sara, 4, and mother, Pauline Langlais, 70, of Sumner.

“It was fun, but next time I’m going to bring my gloves – two pair!” Langlais said. “But you have to be cold. It makes you realize that it’s Christmas.”

The parade began and ended at the Second Congregationalist Church on lower Main Street.

The Rev. Elaine Tullis served hot cocoa, coffee and cookies to carolers.

The business association provided dog bones for the pets.

Dean said she appreciated the turnout and that this first torchlight parade would be good to build on for next year. She said in 2004 organizers are going to try and keep it for the Friday before Christmas, as long as it doesn’t interfere with Hanukkah, which began at sundown.

“The idea was to do something simple and send a message of peace and goodwill and share the spirit,” Dean said.

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