100 Year Old Northwestern Tradition to be revived Saturday April 9th

[Alaskawildkat]

Head over to HailtoPurple.com for the complete story of a heralded Northwestern tradition that began in 1916 and over the years has involved hundreds of thousands of NU Alumni and Students.

Thanks to GoUPurple it will be at least briefly revived this Saturday, April 9th:

For the 100th anniversary of Northwestern's unique tradition, HailToPurple helped to commission the casting of a replica of the Grand Candle. The Shadows Studio in Denver, Colorado made a purple candle the same diameter as the original Northwestern candle, with the same height that the candle would have been after continuous use since its debut (still nearly three feet in length!). The candle will be present at the April 9 celebration of A Day With Northwestern in Evanston, at Norris Center, completing the first century of this Wildcat rite.

Here is a link to the "rest of the story:"

http://hailtopurple.com/features/candle.html

 

[seavue617]

Having attended NU during the "Dark Period" (1965-1969), I never heard of this long dormant tradition. I am sure a great percentage of the living NU alumni were equally unaware of it. If NU wants to rekindle the Candle I guess I'm fine with it but I do wonder about the point of it at this late date since everyone attending NU since the JFK presidency never experienced it.

 

[Alaskawildkat]

Having attended NU during the "Dark Period" (1965-1969), I never heard of this long dormant tradition. I am sure a great percentage of the living NU alumni were equally unaware of it. If NU wants to rekindle the Candle I guess I'm fine with it but I do wonder about the point of it at this late date since everyone attending NU since the JFK presidency never experienced it.

Curious if the original tradition arose out of Northwestern's earlier religious ties back when we were the "Fighting Methodists." I do see joint participation with Garrett mentioned at one point in the history of the tradition as posted on HailtoPurple.com.

i have personally only experienced symbolic candle lighting on three occasions. The first was while participating as a Boy Scout at the Boy Scout Jamboree at Valley Forge when 50,000 of us scouts sitting on a hill all lit candles. More recently I attended a non-denominational Christmas Service at a resort in the Bahamas and each of us lit a candle. Most recently was the occasion below at a Russian Orthodox Church somewhere between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

 

[Alaskawildkat]

On location for the event today at the Norris Center (courtesy of FarEastWildcat):