Diwali at Lubbock

Carol of lights is a festival at Texas Tech University that marks the beginning of the holiday season. Ever since the tradition began in 1959, hundreds of students gather all around the memorial circle to celebrate this festival and marvel at the 25000 light bulbs illuminating the engineering key, the seal entrance and the science quadrangle all the way to the Student Union Building. The sight is simply delightful. The only thing contrary to the lights is the bitter cold which you have to endure if you are bold enough to participate in the actual festival. Carol of lights is like having diwali in Lubbock!

No lights are allowed after dark until 9 pm in all the buildings facing the areas listed above. The gallant gather at the science quadrangle to brave the cold as they patiently wait for the singing to start. The carols are preceded by marching of all Tech mascots (Red raider and the masked raider- was a girl again this time!) who parade to the lit arena with their “guns up” (bordering on pretentious). The singing finally starts and the area is filled with wonderful music.... its sheer pleasure to see professionals at work. After the last carol is sung, some important person (couldn’t care less to know who he was... by that time I was frozen and almost ready to go home without seeing the legendary lights) switched on the lights.... suddenly the entire arena was filled with thousands of lights (had Googled earlier to find the exact number!) which were greeted by a series of “Wooooooooooooooooooows”!

Amazing......... the X-mas spirit starts real early at Tech। The colossal X-mas tree standing tall behind the university seal is all lit up too.

Carol of Lights is celebrated on the first Friday of December each year so that all the students have a chance to take part in the fun. A week later... the campus looks desolate and if it wasn’t for the B-E-A-UTIFUL constructions, it sure would have looked like a ghost town! Besides all the dried grass makes it look so very morose. The only thing to beautify it is the snow.... then our campus looks pretty again!!!