Hispanic Heritage Month Celebrated in Santa Monica

Published on October 5, 2021

The Santa Monica Pier Ferris wheel will be lit yellow, orange, pink, purple, and blue on Friday, October 15 in recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Hispanic Heritage Month is an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the culture, contributions, and heritage of American people whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. This recognition began in 1968 when President Lyndon B. Johnson issued a proclamation annually designating the week including September 15th and 16th as National Hispanic Heritage Week.

The City of Santa Monica expands this celebration to all Latin Americans to honor the Latino/Latinx identity in the United States. The Hispanic Heritage Month Staff Committee, with support from the City Council, aims to elevate, educate, and empower Latinx individuals not only during this month, but throughout the year.

The City is hosting a robust schedule of events to celebrate the diversity of all Hispanic, Latino/Latinx people, the City will highlight the unique and intriguing national flowers of Latin American countries. Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier will participate with a special lighting of the Pacific Wheel featuring festive floral designs in yellow, orange, pink, purple, and blue.

This special lighting event will take place on the evening of Friday, October 15. The Ferris wheel lights can be seen from dusk until 11:35 PM each evening. Enjoy watching the light program online at www.pacpark.com/live.
 

WHAT:
Special Lighting of the Pacific Wheel for Hispanic Heritage Month

WHEN:
Friday, October 15
dusk (around 6 – 6:30 PM) to midnight

WHERE:
Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier

 

The City of Santa Monica hosted speakers and talks throughout the month-long celebration as well as Hola Mexico Film Festival and Santa Monica Pier Classic Car Show. Learn more on the City’s blog.

Pacific Park regularly programs the Ferris wheel to display seasonal programing and themed light designs for holidays and special occasions. The Pacific Wheel’s state-of-the-art lighting package was installed in 2016 and can display over 1.6 million different colors and animate patterns and icons in 24 frames per second. The energy efficient LEDs on the face of the Ferris wheel are powered by solar arrays inside Pacific Park. The light programs are curated and designed by Pacific Park staff. Each design is manually animated; some designs can take hours of programming. The aim is to provide fun, high-energy, and sometimes whimsical designs to entertain guests on the Santa Monica Pier and surrounding beaches.

 

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Feature image courtesy of @michaeltsirakis