The group, Blood, Sweat and Bonfires, spent three weeks constructing the wooden alligator, which will be lit aflame at 7 p.m. The group named it Gator Millet. Its head moves and the jaw snaps, WDSU reported.
Weidert started helping the group build bonfires when he was 13, CNN reported. In the past, there have been turtles, crawfish and even a pelican, the state bird. The group has to get a permit each year for the display.
The bonfire tradition harkens to the 1700s when German and French settlers came to the area and would light fires on the way to midnight Mass, according to Louisiana tourism officials.
"We try to use a lot of dead trees because they burn a lot better," Weidert told CNN. "We'll go out in the woods and harvest our own materials by hand."
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