While the intermingled scents of peppermint and hot apple cider tickled the blushing noses of the chilly crowd, the University lit up the holiday season with its annual Candlelight Celebration on Tuesday evening in front of the Memorial Bell Tower.
Lighting the LSU Christmas Tree, the 11th in the University’s history, brought together members of the Baton Rouge Ballet Theater, University music students, a retired mass communication professor who doubles as a Cajun storyteller and a bell choir to ring in the holiday season. But the celebration also honored the victims of this year’s hurricanes.
“It takes a lot of folks doing a lot of work to prepare for an event like this,” said Randy Gurie, director of special events, who planned the ceremony. “But it is appreciated, and that’s why we do what we do.”
Gurie said the event’s centerpiece, a 47-foot Grand Fir tree, is among the tallest Christmas trees in the nation.
“We’re usually in the top five anyway,” he said. “The tree in Rockefeller Center is probably the tallest, but we’re close.”
Members of the Baton Rouge Ballet Theater performed selections from the Nutcracker Suite wearing full costume and featuring a dancing teddy bear for the several hundred people who attended the event.
“The Nutcracker dancers are my favorite part of the event,” said Kyle Robinson, sociology senior. “My girlfriend used to be a dancer, and it makes her happy. What else can I say?”
Though it was full of the normal holiday cheer, the ceremony took time to acknowledge the suffering felt by the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
In his rich Cajun accent, Jules d’Hemacourt, a retired University professor, read “A Cajun Night Before Christmas” and recited a poem he penned himself titled “The Night Before Katrina.”
“T’was the night before Katrina,” d’Hemacourt’s poem began. “The plywood was hung on the windows with care because we were knowing the hurricane would soon be there.”
The poem’s conclusion offered inspiration to those devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
“We’re going to make it through because we always do,” he said to the crowd who laughed and applauded afterward.
Rabbi Barry Weinstein, philosophy and religion instructor, lead a menorah-lighting ceremony and an explanation of Hanukkah before leading a prayer honoring the soldiers in Iraq and those left stranded in the wake of the hurricanes.
“We need to remind the country that we are a vital part of the United States of America and we need to be rebuilt,” he said.
The ceremony concluded with Chancellor Sean O’Keefe, a man with plenty of countdown experience as former NASA chief, counting down to the lighting of the Christmas tree while the crowd lit candles and Aaron Neville’s “Silent Night” played softly in the background.
“I love sitting back and looking out into the crowd while they hold the candles,” said Mariah Lowrey, pre-medical freshman. “It’s so beautiful.”
Gurie said he was pleased with the event because it brought together members of the Baton Rouge community and the University community.
“It’s another dimension of LSU that some never knew existed,” he said. “It makes LSU a true community.”