By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
EAST VILLAGE — Tompkins Square Park showed off its holiday spirit Sunday with the 19th annual lighting of the park's towering evergreen tree.
The tree, which was planted in 1992 in memory of park advocate Glenn Barnett and other community members who died of AIDS, was strung with white lights as singers from the nearby Theater for the New City belted out Christmas carols.
The tree is decorated each December by volunteers from local community groups, and stays lit at the center of the park through the winter.
"I think it's a beautiful tree and a beautiful sentiment, because God knows this neighborhood lost a lot of people [to AIDS]," said neighbor Elin Melcher, who's lived in the East Village since the 1970s.
"It's nice to know that something lives on from that time when there so much death," she added. "It’s special."
