News Release

Let Hope Ring: Holidays in Harvard Square

Harvard Square Business Association Photo

News Release Date: December 7, 2020

Let Hope Ring: Holidays in Harvard Square

CAMBRIDGE, MA—The Harvard Square Business Association, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and Longfellow House–Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site will partner with Cambridge churches and the Cambridge Office for Tourism to offer several ways for the community to celebrate outdoors at a physical distance, or virtually.

Holiday Poetry Stroll
After a particularly challenging year, the Holiday Poetry Stroll is an opportunity to share hope and light through verse. Designed to be safe and self-guided, this approximately one-hour walking tour around Harvard Square highlights some of Cambridge's renowned poets, past and present, with a focus on how they found hope in trying times. The tour will also feature window art on vacant storefronts in Harvard Square and poetry ornament keepsakes decorating trees in Deguglielmo Plaza. For more ways to participate this holiday season, check out the park’s website.

Bell Ringing
During one of the darkest moments in American history, the Civil War, Harvard Square local Henry Wadsworth Longfellow heard hope ring in the winter air and wrote a poem, Christmas Bells. This year, the churches of Harvard Square hope to spread a message of hope and resilience by ringing their bells in unison at 3 p.m. on December 11 and December 23.

The celebration will continue, virtually, with the debut of the video series, “Sacred Spaces and Good Works in Harvard Square.” These videos celebrate the good work the churches do in the Harvard Square community and feature narration by Kevin Tyler, an unhoused gentleman, and music composed and performed by Cal DiGiovanni, a 13-year old Harvard Square street performer. From December 11 through 23, these videos will be posted daily at 3 p.m. on social media. Those churches that have bells will ring them on the same day their videos debut. Follow @HarvardSQ and @LONGNPS on Facebook for each installment.

The videos will debut in the following order (links will become live on the designated dates):
1. 12/11 The First Parish in Cambridge, Unitarian Universalist
2. 12/12 First Church in Cambridge, Congregational, UCC
3. 12/13 Memorial Church of Harvard University
4. 12/14 Christ Church
5. 12/15 Old Cambridge Baptist Church
6. 12/16 The Society of Saint John the Evangelist
7. 12/17 St. Paul Church
8. 12/18 Swedenborg Chapel
9. 12/19 University Lutheran Church
10. 12/20 First Church of Christ, Scientist, Cambridge
11. 12/21 Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church
12. 12/22 Holy Trinity Armenian Church
13. 12/23 Outdoor Church

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