Drivers dimmed their headlights and circled the neighborhood. The curbside glowed and flickered. In some yards, the smell of vanilla-scented candles filled the air.

This was the scene Sunday night south of 23rd Street at the Indian Hills neighborhood’s 19th annual luminaria display. The event requires sand, votive candles, paper sacks and coordination among neighbors.

Plus, it doesn’t hurt to have nice weather.

“It’s especially pleasant tonight because there’s no wind,” said Ray Hiner, a Kansas University professor of history and education who lives in the neighborhood and was walking along Arkansas Street with his wife, LaVerne. “It’s just a general celebration of light in the darkest time of year.”

Neighborhood association president Joyce Wolf, one of the people who began the tradition in the early 1980s, can’t remember exactly how it began. But she estimated that more than 200 households took part this year.

On Saturday, the neighborhood association distributed sacks and sand to people as they came to pay their membership dues at a local church. Wolf tried to cajole them into filling out a neighborhood survey.

“Everyone who came to pick up their sand and their sacks was in a good mood,” she said. “There weren’t any grouches.”