Join the Festival of Lights in Nieu-Bethsda

NIEU-BETHESDA NEWS - Each year, on New Year’s Eve (Ou Jaarsaand in Afrikaans) the Bethesda Arts Centre hold the Festival of Lights at the Bethesda Arts Centre. This festival is a joyful celebration, as hundreds of candle-lit lanterns wind up the hill from the Arts Centre and through the village.

This year the festival will be held on the 31st December from 19:30 to 00:00.

For many people, the coming of the new year is a time for making changes in our lives, for throwing away old bad habits, and bringing in new, better ones.

Most people make New Year Resolutions such as – “Starting from the new year, I’ll exercise every day, I’ll eat better food, I’ll be on time every day, I’ll work harder ….” The lights we carry in our Festival of Lights symbolise our hopes and intentions to start afresh in the New Year, and through our efforts, to bring light into the world.

There is so much darkness in our world – so much unnecessary suffering.

Bethesda Arts Centre started the Festival of Lights as a way of creating another way of bringing in the New Year at the Arts Centre. For the adults, the money wasted on alcohol could be so much better spent on other things, and the abuse, misery, and neglect that often result from excessive drinking can be avoided. For children of alcoholic parents, the New Year is a time of fear and misery.

They make lanterns, and help the guests to make their own lanterns. They create a performance, and prepare an alcohol-free feast for everyone. Then they carry the lanterns as a symbol of their hopes and their joy around the village for everyone to share.

For more information contact Gerald Mei and Sandra Sweers at gerald@bethesdatower.co.za and sandra@bethesdatower.co.za or 049 8411 731.