#  Gathering Light and Forest Festivals: HDS Celebrates Earth Day 

 





April 15, 2022

 

 

     ![Film still by Sharon Harper, a blue sky and trees with waterdrops in the foreground on the lens](/sites/g/files/omnuum8216/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/rpl/files/screen_shot_2022-04-15_at_11.43.57_am.png?itok=bz_s6e8i) 

 



 

HDS faculty member and friend of Religion and Public Life, [Dr. Dan McKanan](https://hds.harvard.edu/people/dan-mckanan) published an op-ed in the Boston Globe on 19th century forest festivals, a precursor to contemporary Earth Day celebrations and a catalyst for early environmental activism:

> Few climate activists today realize that our concerns were first voiced in the 19th century. This is not because Wright and his companions failed to leave their mark. The Forest Festivals inspired the 1882 Public Domain Act, authorizing Massachusetts towns and cities to preserve their forests. Recognizing the limitations of that law, activists went on to craft the Metropolitan Park Act of 1893. It created Middlesex Fells, Beaver Brook, Blue Hills, and other reservations that spanned town borders and functioned as a template for the creation of state parks across the nation. So we can thank the Forest Festivals for our state parks and for the remarkable reforestation of the eastern United States. Because of them, [60 percent](https://www.fs.fed.us/nrs/pubs/ru/ru_fs239.pdf) of the land in Massachusetts today is forested.

[Read the full Boston Globe article online](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/04/09/opinion/century-before-first-earth-day-there-was-forest-festival-middlesex-fells).

Pair this content with **Harvard Divinity School Earth Day Celebration, Gathering Light**, presented by [The Contellation Project](https://www.planetaryhealthalliance.org/the-constellation-project) and HDS writer-in-residence [Terry Tempest Williams](https://hds.harvard.edu/people/terry-tempest-williams):

   ![Gathering Light: An Earth Day Celebration. Video still from Gathering Light by Sharon Harper, a blue sky with trees with water droplets on the lens.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8216/files/styles/hwp_1_1__960x960_scale/public/rpl/files/gathering_light_.png?itok=0DrXCnps) 

 

## **Gathering Light**   
**An Earth Day Celebration** 

Maurice Ravel’s Piano Trio performed by Neave Trio  
Anna Williams (violin) Mikhail Veselov (cello) and Eri Nakamura (piano)  
Video Installation by [Sharon Harper](https://www.sharonharper.org/)  
Audiovisual Software System by Hugo Solís García  
  
When: Sunday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m. followed by an 8 p.m. reception outdoors around the fire.  
  
Please note: On-campus events are only open to Harvard community members.  
  
Co-sponsored by [Religion and Public Life](/), [Planetary Health Alliance](https://www.planetaryhealthalliance.org/), [Harvard Divinity School](https://hds.harvard.edu/), [Harvard Center for the Environment ](https://environment.harvard.edu/)  
  
Where: Williams Chapel, Swartz Hall, Harvard Divinity School  
**Seating is Limited -** [**Please RSVP by filling out this form**](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd7V_oWXEyM-EZT7Jp9u3GQzJmWCC7zciNfTR1JydY3iQuNOA/viewform)



 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ Religion, Conflict, and Peace ](/news/religion-conflict-and-peace)