UYRC New member induction/Lantern Release

This week is an Offsite Meeting! John Wright Restaurant

Board Meeting: 4:45 PM-5:30 PM

Club Meeting: 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM

Program: New member induction followed by the Uptown York Rotary Club Light Up Rotary Lantern Release - weather permitting. UYRC Members will be provided with a lantern to release with your own personal wishes. ALL MEMBERS ARE ASKED TO PLEASE BRING A LIGHTER SO THAT WE MAY LIGHT AND RELEASE AT THE SAME TIME!!

This year RI President Gary C.K. Huang, who is a member of the Rotary Club of Taipei in Taiwan, selected the theme “Light Up Rotary.”  Huang was inspired by the teachings of Chinese philosopher Confucius who said: "It is better to light a single candle, than to sit and curse the darkness."

Huang said, "The Rotary way is the Confucius way. The Rotary way is to light a candle. I light one, you light one, 1.2 million Rotarians light one. Together, we light up the world."

Inspired by Gary, we are connecting our club to this philosophy in other fun and unique ways as we Rotarians light up our community this year.

About the Lantern Release

Sky lanterns were first invented by the Chinese and were actually used as a functional tool in times of war.  Troops would use them as signals to other soldiers to message each other briefly.  Since then sky lanterns have been incorporated into much more pleasant uses. Commoners would light the sky lanterns and pray for whatever it is they wanted or needed such as good fortune, a good harvest, or fertility. The belief was that the sky lanterns would float up to the heavens to be closer to the gods’ ears.  The additional belief was that the more sky lanterns were used and the longer they remained in the air, the better chances the people would have of their wishes and prayers coming true.