Before finals begin at Elon University (NC), the annual Festival of Lights and Luminaries brings the campus community together to learn about and celebrate one another’s differences. The Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Light organizes the event, which this year featured 10 interactive tables sharing the meaning of light within various religious, spiritual and ethical traditions represented on Elon’s campus. The festival also included musical performance stages, clubs from the Department of World Languages and Cultures, and hot chocolate and hot cider stations, all amidst the luminarias lighting up campus.
“Being able to teach more people about different cultures and all the interesting celebrations around the world, celebrating light and good over evil … is a time where I’m making important memories that I know I’m going to look back on after I graduate,” Sonali Schroder ’23 told Today at Elon.
“In recent years, the festival has become such a wonderful, educational, fulfilling program with lots of rich information about the way that light is celebrated in different cultures and religions,” Jannifer Register, an administrative assistant for the Truitt Center, said. “So many different colleagues across campus, and so many students, are involved in so many different ways.”
