Celebrating International Day of Light

What’s the opposite of darkness?

While you can come up with many creative, literal, and figurative ways to answer that question, I think the most simple response that might pop into your mind is…light! The opposite of darkness is light.

Light has a very important role in every aspect of our lives. Today’s holiday honors that fact while also focusing on so many other factors that go hand in hand with the concept of light.

The International Day of Light

Who knew that light has its own day to cherish and celebrate it? This holiday, the International Day of Light, was started by UNESCO with the goal of achieving peace, equality, and education. Today reminds us of the important role that light plays in all of our lives, encouraging us to have a continued appreciation of it. Today emphasizes the many ways in which we use light in science, day-to-day life, and culture.

How Would You Define Light?

Chances are, even your young child can recognize what light is. However, actually defining this term can be harder than expected. As we stated earlier in this post, light is the opposite of darkness, but what exactly does that mean?

Scientifically speaking, light is “electromagnetic radiation within the electromagnetic spectrum that is perceived by the human eye. Light is a stream of photons that travel with wavelike properties at the speed of light.” I’m sure you can find many other scientific ways to define this all important word…but you get the picture!

The Many Uses of Light

Light has so many uses- many of which you probably realize and some of which you might not! Of course, lights are used to illuminate locations. However, lights are also used to heal certain illnesses, kill bacteria and/or viruses, to transmit information, to protect people, to warm up food, to view things, to help plants grow, to help people stay healthy…and so on, and so on.

Celebrating International Day of Light with Children

• Have your child write an imaginative story about what life would be like without light. They can write about themselves experiencing a day or event without light, or they can choose to write this story about imaginary characters.
• What does “light” mean to your child? Have them write a poem about this scientific concept of light. In order to get them started, you can have a discussion about what this blogpost shares about light and you can brainstorm some ideas, uses, and adjectives together. If your child prefers to think outside of the box, you can have them write an additional part to their poem focusing on the figurative or non-literal definition of light.
• Watch a YouTube video or do a quick Google search about how light works. Working together with your child, see if you can create a diagram that explains this important process. Bonus: can your child include labels on this diagram?
• Who invented the lightbulb and changed how we use light today? Have your child research the inventor of this. They can create a list with facts and information that they learned throughout this research.

Literacy and Light

While there are many scientific experiments that you can look up and try out in honor of this holiday, if your child prefers the literacy side of things, here are some books, focused on this topic, that we suggest:

• Light Waves by David A. Adler
• What is Light? By Markette Sheppard
• The Light She Feels Inside by Gwendolyn Wallace
• My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Go Be the Light by Robin Bennett
• Light: A Fairy Tale by Sarah Allen
• Ray by Marianna Coppo

Here’s to embracing the light in all you do today!