Lighting of the Lawn, 2020 Style

20 November 2020

By Jane Kelly


Students at the University of Virginia heralded the start of the holiday season early this year, celebrating the traditional Lighting of the Lawn festivities virtually on the evening of 19 November before they return home for the remainder of the semester.

The event is typically held in early December and brings thousands of students and members of the community to the Lawn for a two-hour extravaganza of performances in front of the Rotunda. The pandemic forced student organizers to get creative, so they invited student groups and community members to submit videos of their performances for this year’s program, the theme of which was “Finding Our Light.”

One especially adorable performance came from Ella Watson, an 11-year-old who studies acting at the Charlottesville location of the DMR Adventures performance arts academy, whose mission is to build community through the arts.

Watson put on a charming performance of the song “Sparklejollytwinklejingley” from the Broadway musical “Elf.” UVA Today invites you to enjoy Watson’s performance and those of the other singing and dancing UVA student groups who participated in Lighting of the Lawn on its 19th anniversary.

Following Thanksgiving recess, students will finish out the remainder of the semester from home to reduce the possibility of spreading COVID-19.

This story originally appeared on UVA Today.

About the University of Virginia Darden School of Business

The University of Virginia Darden School of Business prepares responsible global leaders through unparalleled transformational learning experiences. Darden’s graduate degree programs (MBA, MSBA and Ph.D.) and Executive Education & Lifelong Learning programs offered by the Darden School Foundation set the stage for a lifetime of career advancement and impact. Darden’s top-ranked faculty, renowned for teaching excellence, inspires and shapes modern business leadership worldwide through research, thought leadership and business publishing. Darden has Grounds in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Washington, D.C., area and a global community that includes 18,000 alumni in 90 countries. Darden was established in 1955 at the University of Virginia, a top public university founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

 

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