Earth Hour

On Saturday, March 29th, cities across the world participated in Earth Hour, and so did we. From 8pm to 9pm we turned the lights off as instructed, and waited to see the effect of participants in NYC across the Hudson River. Empire State Building turned off the top lights during this hour, but I didn't see too much solidarity in the action. Is it because of lack of publicity about it? My husband only found out about it that morning haphazardly via the Internet. This was the world's first participating year, after Australia came up with the event in 2007.

Well, I for one really enjoyed lighting the candles and placing them strategically alongside every entrance and in the corners and turns of every passageway. Lots of tea light candles from Ikea and 'Bougies pour Shabbat' from Manischwitz. Then I realized, those who practice Sabbath every Friday from sundown are naturally and directly helping to save energy. I smiled, and thought what a nice ritual it is to spend one night a week without using electricity... the candlelight was gorgeous! We invited a neighbor for a game of Scrabble during the hour. After almost burning our fingertips over the flames a couple of times, my big brain husband won the game, and our guest came in second.