Mississippi College Students Decorate for the Lighting of the Quad
The 2020 Lighting of the Quad at Mississippi College will be different this year but still capture the meaning of the Christmas season.
Rather than one evening, usually in early December, the traditional holiday event will be spread over three nights in November. It’s happening starting Wednesday night, November 11, with MC’s fall semester wrapping up prior to the Thanksgiving holidays. ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas is the theme.
Beginning at 8 p.m. each evening through November 13, the event is a more modest version of the Lighting of the Quad. The activity is booked several weeks earlier than usual in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
MC junior Raley Holman, 20, of Athens, Georgia, serves as chair of the student committee putting the event together.
Students stayed busy Monday and Tuesday decorating the Clinton campus.
It will be a case of participants masking up, practicing social distancing, and staying safe during the event, Holman says.
This year’s message to the Mississippi College family is “come and enjoy the lights,” Raley says. “We want to bring joy to all of Clinton.”
The Georgia resident is getting a helping hand from 20 students on the Lighting the Quad Committee plus others pitching in.
Lighting of the Quad at the Christian university will feature taped music piped in and possibly some cookie giveaways.
It will be a smaller version of the traditional event, but students felt it is important to celebrate the arrival of the Christmas holidays in a little over a month.
The 2020 Lighting of the Quad will be a “come and go” activity with Christmas trees up. There will be plenty of lights to illuminate the historic center of the Clinton campus, Holman says.
Each year, Lighting of the Quad brightens the holiday season at Mississippi College and its hometown of Clinton. Guest readers, including professors, in past years, would share the Christmas story, and visitors would be treated to hot chocolate. “It’s definitely a hit every year,” Holman said.
As Mississippi College marks its 195th academic year this fall, Lighting of the Quad is how the Baptist-affiliated university celebrates Christ’s birth and love of mankind.
“Everyone on campus looks forward to Lighting of the Quad,” says MC graduate and director of student engagement Jonathan Nutt. It’s always, he said, a terrific way to “kick off the holidays with the MC family and remember the reason for the season!.”
