30 Photos
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
Viviana Smith and her children Bryce and Sofia metting Santa. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
Viviana Smith and her children Bryce and Sofia metting Santa. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
Daralyn Perez meeting Santa. RACHEL VALDESPINO
Tony and Jessica Valderrama with their daughter Eliana. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
Eliana Valderrama watching Santa on stage. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
Evan Baldini and Santa. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
Nancy Weidler and her two sons Lucas and Nicholas in front of the Big Duck. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Big Duck lighting in Flanders was on Monday night. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The Riverhead Middle School Show Choir. RACHEL VALDESPINO
The lawn behind the Big Duck in Flanders was filled with excited children and families, waiting to count down to the big moment when the Route 24 icon would be lit up for the holiday season on Wednesday, December 4.
Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman emceed the event, and the Riverhead Middle School Show Choir performed a few holiday classics before Santa’s arrival.
“It was certainly nice that Santa took the time to come down from the North Pole to spend some time with the children of the Flanders-Riverside community,” the supervisor quipped. “He’s a busy man this time of year. There was such a big line of eager kids waiting to meet him, too.”
Mr. Schneiderman has been emceeing the event for years and said he really looks forward to it each holiday season. “It’s such a nice event,” he said. “It’s become a tradition. And for me, I started helping emcee it when I was a county legislator.”
The Big Duck — a 20-foot-tall by 30-foot-long ferroconcrete building in the shape of a Peking duck — is a county-owned structure that was donated by Kia and Pouran Eshghi in 1987. It was first conceived by duck farmer Martin Maurer in 1931 as a retail shop for duck eggs and poultry and was initially located in the Upper Mills section of Riverhead.
Every year, in early December, the duck is lit with holiday lights and community members gather to ring in the holidays.
The Eshghis were able to attend the event Wednesday night. “There’s a lot of love from the people for the Big Duck. It’s grown more and more over the years,” Ms. Eshghi said. “We couldn’t make it last year, but this year is much more crowded — there’s much more emotion, too.”
Mr. Eshghi was also pleased with the turnout. He said the uniqueness of the duck itself has drawn a lot of love from the community.
The Eshghis ended up originally buying the Big Duck because they used to take their children to visit every week — the whole family loved it, they said.
“It was very sentimental when we bought it, and also when we gave it to the county. We were going to sell it, because they were going to give us a lot of money, but it was better that we didn’t sell it, because they take good care of it and they love it here,” Ms. Eshghi said.
“This was also our land, and we sold the land, and that’s how this whole thing started,” Mr. Eshghi explained.
Mr. Schneiderman believes that the Flanders community really identifies with the Big Duck. “Even though it’s a county building, it’s deeply meaningful for the Flanders community,” he said. “The event is really a town event, and its identity is intertwined with the duck.”
