Festival of Lights and Luminaries Map
Festival of Lights and Luminaries 2025
The Festival of Lights & Luminaries unites the Elon University and Town of Elon communities around shared imagery of light, and celebrates the diversity of our religious, spiritual, and ethical traditions, worldviews, and identities. Our 2025 Festival is centered around the theme: Many Lights on One Night.
Campus clubs, programs, and communities will be sharing their traditions with visitors to the Festival, which this year will take place on the rain date of December 4, 2025 from 6:30pm-8:00pm. The Office of Sustainability will offer Sustainable Holiday Wrapping Kits, there will be music stations featuring Choirs, a Saxophone Quartert, and A Capella Groups, and of course, there will be plenty of hot chocolate and cider. This year, we are offering the largest number of interactive stations in the Festival’s history.
IN CASE OF EVENT EMERGENCY, CLICK HERE FOR THE EMERGENCY EVACUATION PLAN
2025 Festival of Lights and Luminaries: Many Lights on One Night
This year’s theme, “Many Lights on One Night,” brings together the largest number of participants in the event’s history, with a record 36 stations: 24 educational tables, 7 entertainment stations, 3 refreshments areas, and 2 informational tables
Religious, Spiritual, Ethical and Cultural Stations:
A Light from France
Join the French Club for delicious waffles with different toppings (gaufres), a common holiday food in France. We will also offer fun educational content about Francophone holiday traditions!
Advent Lights
The Advent season focuses on Christ’s light coming into the world. We progressively light more candles on an Advent wreath, shining brighter, the closer we get to Christmas. Come enjoy candy canes, educational info about Advent, wreaths, and battery-operated tea lights for folks who would like to observe Advent in their homes.
APSA-lutely Bright
Come join the Asian Pacific Student Association to make lanterns and place messages onto lanterns floating in the Fonville Fountain. You can also enjoy delicious Asian snacks and incense at a table decorated with electrical lanterns and fairy lights in mason jars.
Arabian Night, Special Light
We will have traditional Arab snacks and desserts at our table to share. Also, a calligraphy station where visitors can have their names written in Arabic letters (or a message of their choosing). By bringing food and traditions from another world region, we bring people together and add to the richness of American culture and society.
Bollywood Lights
Join the Surtal, Elon’s Bollywood Dance club, to learn about the Hindu Festival of Lights, Diwali, and enjoy Indian cookies and treats.
From Africa with Light
Join the African Diaspora of Elon learn about African winter celebrations, and design wooden ornaments. We will also have delicious donuts!
Illuminando l’Italia
Come share and explore Italian Culture! Italian Club will share cultural traditions and celebrations through a passion of heritage, and candy/treats to those who stop by.
Illuminating Unity
The Elon Muslim Society table/station represents the light of faith, unity, and understanding within Elon’s diverse community. Our station will highlight and emphasize the importance of values like compassion, peace, and connection in Islam and how they illuminate hearts and communities alike. Our table will embody one of many lights that the Elon community holds. A single light may shine, but it shines brighter when joined by others. Through this event, we hope to share our light with others, and celebrate the many ways each of our communities contributes to the Numen Lumen of Elon.
Letters to Santa, Letters of Light
Pen a letter to Santa to be delivered to the North Pole. Children of all ages are welcome to participate in this beloved Christmas tradition. Letters to Santa allows for the opportunity for community members and Elon students to make notes and wishes to Santa. These letters of light are filled with hope, joy, anticipation, and wishes that help keep the magic of the holiday season glowing.
Light in Full Spectrum
Come to enjoy coloring and scratch art to promote queer community, joy and love through expression and coping mechanisms, and also delicious rainbow candy! We will also offer resources for LGBTQIA+ and spiritually inclined folks on campus.
Lighting in Memory
We will have a Yizkor table. Here, participants can “light a candle” (or tea lamp) in honor of a family member/friend/someone’s name.
Multifaith Scholars Light the Way
Join us to learn about the ways in which Multifaith Scholars engage with diverse faith traditions in their research, learning, and engagement experiences. The program sheds light on interaction between and among diverse faith traditions through undergraduate research and community engagement. We will also have stickers and delicious treats!
One Night- Donut DeLights!
The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah celebrates the light, and the Maccabees’ oil lasting for eight nights. Join the Hebrew club for delicious fried donuts and learn about the joyous holiday of Hanukkah
One Night, Many Lights
Together, we will create a piece of artwork that reflects our theme of “Many Lights on One Night.” This year join us to take pictures of yourselves and your friends using polaroid cameras and hanging the shots on fairy lights along with little stars with messages about the “lights” in your lives.
Polyglot LLC
Join us for a fun game where attendees match the word light in different languages. We’ll also have delicious snacks and candy from different cultures for all visitors to the table.
Roman Saturnalia
The Classics Club will share information about the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia, a time for celebration and gift exchange as a community. Come enjoy holiday-themed activities and snacks.
Shine Your Light
Each menorah has many flames that when lit together create a brighter world. Join Chabad to learn about Hanukkah, and enjoy donuts, chocolate gelt, candy, and fun swag including a menorah!
Spanish Club Ornament Making
The station offers ornament decorating inspired by Mexican burnished pottery, highlighting art and celebrations from different cultures.
Spectrums of Light
We’ll have a tea light craft that involves decorating a sheet of paper and taping it around the light. Throughout the event, people can show off their lights to each other! The more people that participate, the more tea lights that’ll float around the event, enhancing the light from within the crowd!
Spread the Light
Around this time of year, Jews all over the world celebrate Hannukah, the festival of lights.
Sustainable Holiday Gift Wrapping Kits
The Eco-Reps will host a table where students, faculty, families, and alumni can learn about sustainable holiday gift wrapping and take home a kit made by the eco-reps. Each kit will contain handmade newspaper bows, laser engraved holiday tags, newspaper, and ribbon. Our station aligns with “One night, many lights” by highlighting how individual actions (like choosing sustainable wrapping) can collectively brighten our community and reduce environmental impact. Each small, mindful choice adds to the shared light of sustainability and care for our planet.
Wintermarkt
The German Club will be showcasing German cultural traditions relating to the holiday season, and also how these relate to other cultures. We will have gingerbread and German candy, and a station for making advent wreathes (non-religious). These wreaths, which feature candles, are meant to be used as centerpieces, and bring families and communities together.
Wishes for the Light
Students write a hope or intention for the months ahead as the light returns. They roll the paper into a small scroll around a cinnamon stick and tie it with twine. And they light a LED candle and place it in a shared sun circle symbolizing how small lights together brighten the dark.
一灯一愿 (Yī Dēng Yī Yuàn) One Night, One Wish
Around Christmas time, Chinese people, particularly younger generations in urban areas will celebrate 平安夜 by exchanging apples wrapped in paper (which symbolize peace due to a play on words: “apple” in Chinese, 苹果 píngguǒ, sounds like “peace” 平安 píng’ān). This act of sharing small but meaningful gifts reminds everyone that a sense of community can strengthen connections and brighten the holiday season through shared gestures of goodwill and peace.
Music and Entertainment:
A Capella
Enjoy songs from our own Elon student a capella groups.
Carols and Choirs
Stop by the Long patio to hear traditional Christmas music from our Catholic and Protestant campus communities.
Saxophone Quartet
As you stroll through the Historic Neighborhood, enjoy the sounds of Elon’s saxophone quartet.
Elon Photo Frame
Take a photo in our lit up Elon photo frame, located near the Fonville Fountain, for a memory of the Festival of Lights and Luminaries 2025.
LED Wand Stations (3 stations)
Light up the night with fun Light Wands to celebrate many lights on one night!
Refreshments:
Hot Chocolate, Cider, and Water (3 stations)
Informational Stations
Luminary Locator
The Office of Parent Engagement will have a table Under the Oaks with maps of where luminaries are located, and staff members available to assist students in finding their luminary!
The Senior Circle
Senior Class luminaries are around the Fonville Fountain. We will provide assistance in finding seniors luminaires as well as information regarding upcoming events for the Class of 2025.