Tis the season for many things, but light displays cross all religious traditions this time of year, beginning with the lighting of the Menorah during Hanukkah.

For Christians, Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas and may include lighting a candle each week in an Advent wreath. Candles are lit in a kinera during the seven days of Kwanzaa.

Pagans remind us that Christmas, which roughly coincides with the shortest day of the year on Dec. 21, is built on pre-Christian traditions that celebrated the return of light.

In windows and on shrubs, wrapped around tree trunks and porch rails, in private homes and public businesses, tis the season for sparkly, pretty, dazzling light.

In Brunswick this year, a group of Maine Street business owners added their own seasonal torch to the town’s streets in the form of light sculptures by Portland artist Pandora LaCasse.

The installations were commissioned by Susan Tarpinian and Craig Urquhart, owners of Morning Glory Natural Foods; Connie Lundquist, a local artist and interim director of Five Rivers Arts Alliance; and George and Liz Glover, owners of the Tondreau Building. Bright ideas, like all good things, come in threes, since it just happened that the three parties decided to install Pandora lights this year.

Tarpinian and Urquhart contacted LaCasse to look at their storefront at 60 Maine St. last year. “We were thinking we would have them for last Christmas,” Tarpinian said. “Pandora said no, no. We would have them for this Christmas. We went back and forth with sketches a couple of times.” Finally, the Morning Glory display lit up Nov. 29.

“Our plan is to add a little each year,” Tarpinian said. The displays, which can cost upwards of $10,000 are built to last and LaCasse installs them each year and also takes them down. “It’s not fall apart stuff,” Tarpinian said.

Lundquist’s display at 108 Maine St. also went up the week after Thanksgiving, but by then the three parties who contracted with LaCasse had begun to work together.

“I didn’t know anyone else was planning a Pandora display until I met with Pandora and she said she was talking to these other people,” Lundquist said. “The idea for my installation began in January or February when I was planning the art walks. People were talking about having the art walks year round and I thought we would have to do something about the lighting downtown, so that we would have something inviting. I’ve always adored the lights in Deering Oaks Park (Portland), so I contacted Pandora.” The result is several cocoons of blue light that seem to drop like moons from the branches of the oak tree at the Bank of America building.

“When I saw them on the ground, before she even hung them, I cried,” Lundquist said. “They were so beautiful and this is my gift to the community. I may not serve on the town council or in ways like that, but I am thankful for the people who do. I wanted to light up Maine Street. It’s my public service.”

The Glovers were unavailable for comment at press time because they leave Brunswick for the winter, but according to Lundquist, “They wanted something whimsical and that’s how they ended up with the triangles on the Tondreau Building.” The Glovers also hope to add to their installation each year.

In November 1999, Portland’s Downtown District asked LaCasse to create a light installation in Tommy’s Park in the Old Port. Since that time, she has been magically transforming both private and public spaces with her distinct sculptural shapes and colorful expressive lighting. Municipalities, corporations, nonprofit entities and individuals have commissioned her installations. LaCasse’s work has been shown in galleries across Maine and can be seen in such recognizable places as Longfellow Square, Deering Oaks, L.L. Bean and in more distant venues such as Nova Scotia and Texas.

The display of Pandora lights can be viewed nightly on Maine Street.