Of Festivals and Lights

Lights play an important role in festivals. Rarely would you find a festival where the streets of a city or the porch of a house is not lit to its full glory. What is interesting is that this phenomenon is culture agnostic. With traditional Indian diyas to candles, each culture has it’s a way of manifesting the role of light in their celebrations. We all know of Diwali. So we thought of collating a list of festivals of lights from across the world, presenting yet another unifier.

1. Festival of Light: St. Lucia's Day in Sweden

Folklore has that December 13th follows the longest night of the year in Sweden. During the winter, there are only a few hours of sunlight each day. St. Lucia is honored this day with her wreath of candles.

 2. Traditions of light: Christmas in France

The Christian tradition of light during the Christmas season is displayed by lighting candles on four consecutive Sundays before the Christmas Day.

3. Traditions of light: Hanukkah

Hanukkah is the Jewish Festival of Lights. The story carved around a sacred light, which was lit for 8 days with oil that could have just survived just a day, until a messenger returned with more.  

4. Festival of Light: St. Martin's Day (Sint Maarten) in Holland

Celebrated in Holland every 11^th of November, Saint Martin's Day sees children carry lanterns and go from house to house singing songs. People give them candy and other treats. A little less fun version of Halloween.

5. Festival of Light: Loi Krathong (loy-kruh-thong) Festival in Thailand

This holiday is celebrated in Thailand in November each year. "Loy" means "to float" and a "Krathong" is a lotus-shaped vessel made of banana leaves. The festival starts at night of a full moon where people carry their Krathongs to the nearby rivers, light them and make a wish and let them drift away in the water. Sound familiar?

You read through this and we know that this is just yet another unifier and a testament that culture professes the same lessons and rituals have a similarity world over. 

The Heavy science behind the Light art

Light art is an interesting form of visual art where, like the name suggests, the main media of expression is light. Light is used in multiple creative and innovative manner, usually with the help of a accessory or element that helps accentuate the beauty of the lights or the element on which the light falls.

While light has been used for architectural effect throughout human history, the modern concept of light art emerged with the development of artificial light sources and experimentation by modern art. Today, younger artists are taking light in new directions.

One of the earlier forms of uses of light and art were the ones in which stained glass were used to color transmitted light; examples of which goes back to the 4th century. This form of light art is predominantly seen in churches and mosques, where the architecture includes elaborate stained glass windows. Another very common use of light in art is in shadow puppetry. Here the projections of shadows from puppets are used to create moving images.

Another interesting angle to study the light art is the understanding of modern photography and motion pictures. With the invention of electrical artificial light, possibilities were expanded and many artists began using the light as the main form of expression, instead of just as a vehicle for other forms of art. In Geneva, Switzerland, The Funds for Contemporary Art of the City and Canton of Geneva initiated a project of public art. The Neons Parallax envisages the achievement of seven luminous installations, each one conceived by a different artist on the roofs of the buildings located at the edge of the Plaine de Plainpalais .

Today lights have evolved to be called intelligent light. Lights which move to the tune of the music you are playing, some creating imagery, neons flashing at parties and laser cracking up smoke.

Which one do you like the most and why? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Color me Red!

The light in the most favorite corner of your house can determine something more about you. Researchers say that the type of color you prefer can determine some aspects of your personality.

If you love RED or white walls, lit up with red lights, you are an action oriented and you experience life through your five senses.

An orange lamp in the corner of your room tells us you have one too many parties. It shows a clear need to socialize more and take up more challenges.

If you love going mellow with yellow, it just means that method is your madness. You are systematic and love order in everything you do or involves you. Going green has nothing to do with envy, but tells you that you have a huge need to be loved and accepted by all. You need some acknowledgment in your life, the key word is some. A mere ‘thank you’ is more than enough to set you rolling.

Lovers of blue need inner peace and have an urge to find themselves. They love living their life in their own terms without altering much. A Pink lit wall tells your friends that you have deep need to be accepted and loved unconditionally. Golden lights and we know you radiate charisma, personality and individuality... ready to charm people each day. Intuition and insightful are your personality characteristics if silver lights flicker in your temple. Why temple, obviously because you have a stronger connection with the spiritual world.

So what is does the light in your room say about you? Tell us in the comments section below.

SOCIALLY ‘ENLIGHTENED’ STREETS

We left late from work on one Friday last week. The feeling of a win was brewing in the car. An important assignment got completed; we were applauded for our work, and the weekend was waiting for us. As the car turned into a quite lane before my building, we saw the streetlights were off. The upset tumble evolved from how bad the infrastructure is to the social benefits of street lighting.

As we all agree, street lighting creates navigable & safe. In most people's minds, offenders or potential victims, there is a simple and direct relationship between lighting and crime. The better the lighting, the lower the possibility of crime. Offenders benefit from the cover of darkness and good street lighting exposes them. Improved lighting means that offenders are more likely to be seen by someone who might intervene, call the police, or recognize the offender. Even if this does not happen, some offenders who fear that it might would be deterred from crime.

Improved lighting deters potential offenders by increasing the risk that they will be seen or recognized when committing crimes, which eventually leads them to back off from the area of crime. Police & potential saviours become more visible, thus leading to a decision to desist from crime. If improved lighting leads to the arrest and imprisonment of offenders they can no longer commit crimes in the area and also deters others from committing the crime due to the fear of being punished. New lighting can encourage residents to spend more time on the roads or yards in the evenings and thus increase informal surveillance.

As we reached the safety of our houses, the discussion moved to how something as simple as street lights are a part of a safe social society. While, we got the topic for our next blog, it also got us thinking on how to egg the local authorities to make it mandate to have good street lighting to effectively make our streets safer.

These will ‘Light Up’ your lives...

We were sitting and discussing our next blog topics when suddenly one of the team members got very philosophical. “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” he quoted Plato. What initially got welcomed with chuckles and ‘ho-hums’, eventually led to a series of sayings around the word light. We selected the top five quotes that came out of our ‘jamming’ and have compiled it below. We thought it would be a good break in our blogs. Hope you like it as much as we did while creating it... Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to light up your lives. :)

a. “Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.” 

― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

True isn’t it. It’s fascinating when science meets philosophy. One gets to witness the analytical mind getting blown away by the more fluid avatar of the creative, realistic one. While speed and light go hand in hand, the irony of darkness reaching their before the light strengthens the purpose of the mighty light.

b. “May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

We were itching to add a product bit here, but refrained from it. :) Don’t we all carry that one thing with us, which we look at or use as we start losing hope, as the hands that had lent their hands of support slowly withdraw back.

c. All those other things, they are the glass that contains the lamp, but you are the light inside.”
― Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel

The light within, has always been a common usage. But the above line creates a sense of personification and makes the man, light himself.

d. “There is a crack in everything.

That's how the light gets in.”
― Leonard Cohen, Selected Poems, 1956-1968

We loved this one. Calling out to all the crazy, the misfits to tell them that it’s that little crack in their heads that gets spotted out by all, that gives them the enlightened perspective to life.

e. “Pointing to another world will never stop vice among us; shedding light over this world can alone help us.”
― Walt Whitman 

Wisdom beyond the ordinary, as Walt Whitman calls out for people to look within and look amongst them for humanity to move beyond.

As we selected the top 5 quotes, we strengthened our belief in the concept of light and its effect on us. One cannot fathom a life without light, in its real pure form. But light in its philosophical form teaches us lesson, at par at what we learn sitting under it.