Via Kinky Delight, this photo of Christmas lights hung like enormous panties over the holiday streets of a European town piqued my curiosity. What’s going on with the erotic holiday lights in vast lingerie shapes?

erotic holiday lights festooned in the shape of giant panties over a European city at Christmas

It took some doing because this photo has appeared in every holiday-roundup “50 Funny Clickbait Fails That Will Make You Click!” article for the last five years or so, but I finally managed to track down a German-language story that explains the situation. Google machine translation (below) is far from perfect, but from it we can glean some details. The lights grace Eislingen in southern Germany, and the display dates to the beginning of the 21st century. Their official name is Sternenregen (Star Rain). Local opinion on the panty lights seems mixed, but there’s plenty of positive opinion:

“Shining panties” – lace or horror?
04.12.2015

Smirking or embarrassed turning away at the sight of the “shining panties” in Eislingen’s main street? The Advent decoration in the Baden-Württemberg town becomes a controversy.

Are they glowing underpants? A photo of the Christmas decoration in Eislingen in Baden-Württemberg provides amusement in the net. Hanging over the main street are lights that are reminiscent of triangles on the head – or even on radiant knickers.

“The Eislinger stand for their lighting, because it is not zero fifteen,” said a spokeswoman for the city. The “star rain”, as the lighting is officially called, has been decorating the city center for 15 years, always in the Advent season.

“The underpants belong to Eislingen, what would Christmas be without this decoration?” Wrote a user on the Facebook page of the Stuttgart radio station Die Neue 107,7, who had posted the photo online. Another wrote: “I am ashamed to be an Eislinger.” One asked: “What is going on with you?” Someone demands: “Get away with the things. New jewelry must come !! ”

For some “terrible”, “poor” and “embarrassing”, but for some “cult”, “hehehe”, “legendary” and “that’s been so for 20 years”. A citizen says: “Yes, we old Eislinger are every year proud of our underpants again!”