The press and public are invited to attend the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s annual Festival of Lights, an interfaith holiday celebration.  The Festival of Lights has been an annual celebration for the past 36 years. The celebration of the Festival of Lights is a reminder to bring the light to the dark places within ourselves and in our world.

Place:  U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, 300 Steamboat Road, Kings Point, New York: Mariners’ Memorial Chapel overlooking Long Island Sound
Date:   Monday, December 16, 2013
Time:   7.30 p.m.
Open to the Public:   Please RSVP to publicaffairs@usmma.edu. Guests are encouraged to arrive early, as chapel as space is limited.
 
The Mariners’ Chapel has been called the “people’s chapel” as it serves and honors all faiths – and is used in celebration and prayer by all religious denominations.  It has been a refuge for divine guidance in times of celebration and in moments of peril. The chapel commemorates the sacrifices of the officers and men of U.S. Merchant Marine who gave their lives at sea during World War I and II. The Chapel belongs to Merchant Mariners and to all Americans; it stands as one of our country’s National Memorials to America’s wartime seamen and serves to remind America of the great sacrifices of merchant mariners, especially in time of war. A large book, "The Roll of Honor" in the pedestal case near the front altar reminds us to “Tell America” and contains the names of every U.S. Merchant mariner killed in the First and Second World Wars.  To this day, a page in the volume is turned each morning by the midshipman officer of the day.