SOME of the country's most recognisable buildings will be plunged into darkness tonight to mark the start of the First World War.
At 10pm, public buildings and offices will turn off all the lights, leaving just a single candle or bulb to illuminate them for an hour as they reflect on the start of the outbreak of war 100 years ago.
The initiative was inspired by then Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey's remark at the outbreak of the First World War: "The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."
As part of the Lights Out project, artist Nalina Malani will present a large-scale video projection across the western and southern facades of the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh.
Glasgow City Chambers is among the buildings taking part. The city council plans to turn off all the lights in its headquarters. From 10pm only a single light overlooking George Square will burn. On the stroke of 11pm it will be switched off to mark the start of the war.
A vigil will start at 10pm in Glasgow Cathedral and will finish at 11pm with a single candle being snuffed out.
Organisers of the UK-wide project hope members of the public across the country will also switch off their lights at 11pm to reflect on the conflict.
Glasgow Lord Provost Sadie Docherty said: "We hope this highly symbolic gesture will allow everyone in our city to remember their fellows citizens who took part in World War 1.
"Some 18,000 Glaswegians never returned from the war and Glasgow, like towns and cities the length and breadth of countries throughout the world, was never the same again."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article