LUMINISCENCE Philadelphia — Sound and Light Show All Ages Summer show recently extended into November From $19 to $49 depending on when you go and if you’d like to experience a live choir Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter & Paul. Located at 1723 Race St, Philadelphia, PA 19103, United States. Constructed between 1846 and 1864.
By the end of the show, I was left with contentment that the church was reaching out to a wider crowd than just Christians, as the more people who attend, the more the church can fundraise toward conservation. Those who went supported the church’s vision to continue solidifying its place within the community, the City of Brotherly Love. By the end of the show, I wanted to see the church without the lights. I was impressed and wanted to return and attend Mass to see the church for what it actually is.
My birthday weekend is here, and to my surprise, my boyfriend took me to the Luminiscence show at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter & Paul in Philadelphia, PA. My Instagram feed had advertisements for the show, and I was very interested in going but did not expect to, as I had considered not doing much for my birthday. My boyfriend, being the thoughtful person he is, bought tickets for us to experience the Catholic church in a different light (pun intended).
Shadow Figures and a Church in the Dark — First Impressions of Luminiscence
We got there rather early and had gold seats, which gave us a really good view once we got inside. My bag was checked outside, and as I waited, I wasn’t able to fully grasp how large the church was. To do that, you’d have to step back and go across the street, as the Basilica is the largest church in Pennsylvania. Marvelous as she looked on the outside, I was ready to go in and see what kind of works would be inside, as Catholic churches are known to be ornate and beautiful to look at.
When we entered, for a typical churchgoer, it’s not often you get to see a church in complete darkness, let alone one with projections. When we walked in, we were led to our pew, where shadow figures projected against the church walls walked with us to our seats. The shadow projections walked throughout the church, which was mesmerizing — I’d never seen anything like it, and from what I could hear, most of the rest of the attendees hadn’t either.
It was refreshing to see the church lit up in different colors and lights. We were led through the different projections via a narrator who generally shared the church’s place during important times of America’s 250 years of existence. The church was built between 1846 and 1864 and still stands to this day. It has many stories to tell, and its audience includes a mixture of people. For example, I am a Christian and have been since I was 16, and am currently considering converting to Catholicism from Protestantism. My boyfriend considers himself agnostic, and while he supports my beliefs, he is not a Christian. I’d assume it’s safe to say that those who attended were a mix of people interested in architecture, Catholics or Christians, people brought along by someone else, or people who wanted to see something that isn’t very common to see.
Gold Leaf, Ceiling Stars, and the Latin Words Overhead
My eyes were not enough to take in the church. I wished I had multiple eyes in the moment, as I looked straight up to view the ceiling, then right and left and forward and up again, trying to gather all the works and details, from the chandeliers to the intricate gold leaf laid on the ceiling. The lights displayed stars, and if you paid attention, you could see Christ’s words engraved in Latin:
TV ES PETRVS ET SVPER HANC PETRAM AEDIFICABO
You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build
The Choir, the Narration, and America’s 250 Years Inside a Basilica
After a few minutes, the choir was introduced, and heavenly music assisted the light display and elevated the experience even more. With each song, a new set of lights would show, and in between acts, the narrator would share brief facts about the church such as the current events at the time and the challenges the church and America faced without getting political or going very in-depth into religious opinions or culture-war battles.
Who Luminiscence Was Built For — And the History Lover It Left Behind
If I had other feedback, I would say that the show was geared toward the general public, and it gave everyone something: art lovers were able to see the projections against the paintings and architecture of the church. The non-believers were able to enter the church without fear of judgment and experience it without guilt, without the church’s spotlight on them — they were able to privately experience the church without the need for another motive.
The person left out to dry was the history lover. Although the point of the show wasn’t to stir political and cultural issues among the crowd, at a time when Catholic attendance is at its highest, there are excited new believers and Catholics who are extremely interested in their local church’s history and place in the community. The focus of the experience was to highlight the founding of Philadelphia and the basilica, and to experience the music and architecture of the church, which is what I initially paid for — but I was left wanting more, which in turn is probably a sign of the show’s success.
What I Wish the Basilica Would Show Next
In the end, I didn’t know how much I wanted to know more about the historical facts of the church itself. As someone who is potentially excited to fall behind the Catholic Church, I wanted to know when Pope Francis visited the Philadelphia Basilica and why, to understand more since those who are non-believers or Protestants can see the ways of the Catholic Church as foreign. I think there’s an opportunity here for those interested who want to learn about the limestone and cost of construction, who built the church, whether there are still members from the original founders, what their stance was on the Mexican-American War, the Great Depression, and the World Wars, or how it adapted to technological changes — electricity, phones, and even now, projections. There’s an opportunity for the church to possibly add a second kind of event for those who want more.
The Luminiscence event was successful and left me wanting to learn more, and I will want to attend Mass to see the church in full light. I was proud to be a part of something this grand, and the choir showcased their skills by ending the show with a popular composer, which led the audience to clap and stand, impressed by the range. Not all Catholic churches have choirs, so this was a first for me, hearing classical music live, and the church was even open to singing secular music that fit the skillset of the choir members. In awe, I’m sure the audience was left wanting to return.
I hope that the next time the church does another Luminiscence show, there will be an opportunity to be walked through the church’s individual history, its stances, how it overcame cultural pushback, its architecture or even a Christmas feature on the life of Jesus, up through Easter and the Resurrection. There’s a lot of opportunity that this inspired in me while watching Luminiscence. To me, the show did what it said it would do, and I left wanting more — and I left feeling that the church owes explanations of its history, and proof of its place in that history, by sharing its actions, not just generalities.