On the 1st of November, our community will come together to honour loved ones who have gone before us. The Night of Light will be a quiet, heartfelt gathering – a time to pause and remember, filling the evening with light.

Before the candles are lit, there will be an All Souls Service at 3pm in the church – a peaceful space for reflection, open to anyone who wishes to remember someone dear. At 4pm, weather permitting, we will move out to the churchyard to light hundreds of memorial lanterns. One by one, these tiny flames will transform the space into a soft sea of light, each glow carrying love and memory.

Although the Night of Light is a local event, it resonates with a long-standing global tradition - the use of light to honour the dead and express enduring love that transcends the boundaries of life and death.

In Mexico. during Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), families fill their homes and cemeteries with marigolds, candles, music, and stories. It’s believed that the light guides their ancestors’ home for the night — a reunion of hearts across time. Across Eastern Europe, lighting candles in graveyards on All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days is one of the most moving traditions of the year. In Poland, families travel long distances to tend ancestral graves, polish headstones, lay flowers, and light glass lanterns called znicze. As darkness falls, the cemeteries shimmer with tens of thousands of tiny lights. Across Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia, churchyards too glow through the night, the flames symbolising both the souls of the departed and the triumph of Christ’s light over darkness. In Japan, during Obon, families float lanterns on rivers and seas to guide ancestral spirits back to the afterlife. The soft lights drifting on water mirror the soul’s peaceful return. And in India, during Diwali — the Festival of Lights — families light diyas and candles to celebrate life’s triumph over darkness, hope over despair, life over death. Many take time to remember their ancestors too, blending remembrance with joy.

Across religions and cultures, these shared gestures remind us that light is universal — a symbol of love, memory, and spiritual connection. These moments of shared remembrance turn sorrow into beauty.

Our Night of Light joins this worldwide chorus of remembrance. Whether in a bustling Mexican city, a quiet Polish village, or our own churchyard, people everywhere turn to light — to say what cannot be spoken. Every candle carries a message: that love never truly leaves us, that even in grief, beauty can be found, and that darkness is never the end.