The bright lights in Port de Grave mean more than Christmas. They’re also about memory and loss [Video]

On a twinkling wharf in a small Newfoundland town, a crowd of about 100 people stopped singing and chatting on Friday night to bow their heads in a moment of silence for local fish harvesters.

Now in its 26th year, the boat lighting in Port de Grave, N.L., draws visitors from all over the province, but organizers have kept the town’s fishers at the heart of the ceremony.

The event kicks off with Christmas carols and hot chocolate, but it includes a solemn prayer for the fishers — those who died in the past year in the community from any cause, and those who continue to make it home safe while doing one of the deadliest jobs in …