Annual Lighting of the Pilgrim Monument Happening Tonight in Provincetown

PROVINCETOWN – The Annual Lighting of the Pilgrim Monument, one of Cape Cod’s most revered traditions, is happening tonight at the Pilgrim Monument – Provincetown Museum.

The lighting celebrates the Pilgrims’ First arrival to the New World in Provincetown on November 11, 1620.

“The Pilgrim Monument is lit up every year the night before Thanksgiving and it stays lit for 56 days, the number of days the Mayflower Pilgrim landed in Provincetown Harbor. And, of course, they signed the Mayflower Compact and met with native people, the Wampanoags, in our jurisdiction,” explained Museum Executive Director Dr. David Weidner.

The lighting will be held tonight from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. at PMPM. The monument will be lit up at 6:00 p.m. Admission is free, and light refreshments and entertainment will be provided.

“We really appreciate a big crowd and surely weather is not a big dependent factor, people come. Last year we had over 1,550 people here on our grounds. And it’s a real community event, with hundreds of local residents and families and kids, it’s perfect,” Weidner said.

This year, PMPM says it will illuminate the Monument for everyone who needs a little Light and Love. As a Beacon of Tolerance and Hope for over 100 years, PMPM says it honors those throughout the world who do not enjoy the acceptance and peace most Americans get to enjoy.

Every year, people from near and far come to the event to witness the Monument festooned with more than 3,100 “landing lights,” which will shine through January 6 of 2019.

“There are 3,100 little individual lights, 19 strands of them, that drape from the top of the Pilgrim Monument all the way down to the base. It’s a 252-foot structure, so that’s a lot of lights and a lot of things to check in, and we screw each of those bulbs in by hand,” Weidner said.

A live web broadcast of the lighting can be found on the PMPM Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pilgrimmonument/.

By TIM DUNN, CapeCod.com News Center 

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