Lighting up Lincoln Cathedral

For more than 950 years, Lincoln Cathedral has stood as a beacon of light, hope and love high above the city and visible for many miles around.

In 2019, as part of the Lincoln Cathedral Connected project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, new architectural lighting was installed to replace the old flood lighting. As well as being more economical to run, the new system highlights the many intricate carvings that cover the building, they ensure that the Cathedral looks as stunning at night as it does in the day.

Another added feature of the new lighting system is the ability to light the three towers in a variety of colours. The Cathedral uses this to recognise and mark particular liturgical seasons, festivals, events, international and national anniversaries, and recognised awareness days.

 

The lights are most often used to mark events, celebrations, and seasons in the Church year. Usually, on these occasions, the colours of the lights are the same as the liturgical colours of the Church of England:

  • Epiphany – Gold
  • Candlemas – Gold
  • Lent – Purple
  • Holy Week – Red
  • Maundy Thursday – White
  • Good Friday – Lights off
  • Easter Eve – Off until 9pm, then white
  • Easter Day – Gold
  • Ascension Day – Gold
  • Pentecost – Red
  • Trinity – Gold
  • Bishop Grosseteste Day – Purple
  • All Hallows’ Eve – Gold
  • All Saints’ Day – Gold
  • All Souls’ Day – Purple
  • St Hugh’s Day – Gold
  • Advent – Purple
  • Christmas Day – Gold

Keep an eye on our Facebook page  – www.facebook.com/Lincoln.Cathedral –  to find out more about why the Cathedral is lit in certain colours through the year.

Some of the past occasions that we have marked include:

Red white and blue to mark VE80

Yellow for Anti-Slavery Day

Multi-coloured for New Year celebrations

Blue and Pink for Baby Loss Awareness Week

Green on St John’s Day, an annual celebration to honour the work of St John Ambulance

Pink to raise awareness of the 30th anniversary of NHS Organ Donor Register.

Making a request to light the Cathedral

If you represent an organisation that would like to apply to light the Cathedral, please email bookings@lincolncathedral.com

Please include as much detail as possible in your request to help our team process your request. For example, the dates you would like the Cathedral to be lit, the colour, information about the organisation, the purpose of lighting the Cathedral, and how that would support your cause.

As you can imagine, the Cathedral receives many more requests per year than it is able to accommodate. As such, all requests are considered by the senior leadership team against a set of guidelines.

For national awareness days, lighting is usually only granted if it is for a significant anniversary or where the Cathedral is, or could be, involved with additional outreach and community engagement activities locally or nationally.

Please note that requests from political parties, the manufacturers of certain products, and organisations seeking to gain commercial profit/affiliation with the Cathedral will not be considered.

 

 

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