The Festival Of Lights

1. The Festival Of Lights

2. Everything began in 1643, when the south of France was touched by the plague.This disease caused thousand of deaths and was the most devastating disease known by Europe and France. That’s the reason why people from Lyon made the wish to honnor the Virgin Mary if the plague was stopped.And lyon was saved ! The History of the Festival of Lights

3. This is a religious festival, so a solemn procession goes to the Basilica of Our Lady at Fourvière from the Cathedral of Saint Jean, every 8 December, the date of the Immaculate Conception, a religious celebration for the Virgin Mary.

4. History In 1852 the statue of the Virgin Mary was inaugurated on the Fourvière Cathedral. The inauguration of the statue should have been September 8 december, 1852, Day of the Nativity of the Virgin, but a flood of Saône prevented the inauguration, the ceremony was delayed november 8th So Lyon is a city devoted to the Virgin Mary . Mary is considered as the savior of the city , savior from the plague , from death.

5. Why « light » festival ? On December 8th in the morning, a violent storm broke out on Lyon. The priest in charge of the ceremony immediately decided to cancel everything. But, finally, the sky cleared, but was still dark. That’s the reason why the population of Lyon illuminated windows and went into the street. The Lyonnais sang "Long live Mary! late into the night. That’s how the story of the festival « of lights » began!

6. The Lumignons • For that celebration , a lot of people still honorate the tradition : putting candles in coloured glasses . This is a lumignon . It’s very nice , a lot of colours illumitate the street , and every house . We all illuminate our city ! We put them on our window sill , so everybody can see them !

7. The most famous places In the five following slides , We will present you the most famous places of the festival of lights.

8. Bellecour Place Bellecour is a famous square in Lyon. Each year the festival of lights installs an anima-tion on this site , for example , in 2011 the the statue of Louis XIV was enclosed in a bubble

9. Celestins The Celestins is a theater near Bellecour square. Every year , the illuminations are fun , this year , we could play a giant pinball machine on the wall of the theater !

10. Cathedral of St Jean The Cathedral of St Jean is also illuminated but it’s more classical than the Celestins theater or the Bellecour square. However, every year , its facade is illuminated with bright colors .

11. Terreaux Terreaux is a square in the center which is particular because entire big walls are illuminated during the festival ,it’s beautiful . This place is the most visited by the tourists during the festival and it is worth seeing !

12. The Cathedral of Fourviere • At the top of the city , the higher part of lyon , is standing the Fourvière Basilica. That monument is illuminated all night! A message is written : « thanks Mary » in French, we can see it from everywhere in Lyon.

13. Today • Today , that celebration is more festive than religious . In fact a lot of people don’t know , or don’t care that at first it was religious . Today this is just a festival, a great animation with lights. A lot of tourists come for that occasion ! Nowadays it’s not only the 8th december ,the festival lasts 3 days , and 3 nights . People come from everywhere ! 10% from Asia ! So if one day you want to visit Lyon , do it during the light festival! It’s cold but so nice !

14. Made by Yanis Zekri Solal Pignerol Vincent Exiga