The Luminaria Ceremony is the quiet heart of every Relay For Life. Here is what it means and how to take part from anywhere.
Some time after sunset, the music stops and the lights go off. Around the whole track, paper bags glow from the candles inside them. On each bag someone has written a name: a person lost to cancer, a person still in treatment, a person who made it through. People walk a lap in silence. Many stop to find the bag they came for.
In the United States these bags are called luminaria. In many other countries they are candle bags. The word changes. The silence does not.
It is the moment every Relay in the world shares.
The Global Heroes of Hope keep a Luminaria Garden online, open to everyone, all year. You can add a name and a few words, and it will glow there alongside luminaria from around the world. It is free, and it is not a fundraiser. It is only for remembering.
Light a luminaria for someone, or walk among the ones already there.
Enter the gardenThe order most Relays use, the readings and songs, and the practical details, from Relayers around the world.
See the outlineReal stories from survivors, caregivers, and Relayers around the world, and a way to tell yours.
Read the storiesThelma Suson led the Global Heroes of Hope for many years and was, for many Relayers around the world, the reason they knew Relay was global. This short film from Global Relay For Life remembers her.
A short film from Global Relay For Life.
Luminaria are never a game, a contest, or a marketing tool. On this site and on the Global Heroes of Hope site, they are treated the way they are treated on the track: quietly.
