John Lennon at 71: Yoko Ono Live-Streams Imagine Peace Tower Ceremony Today

By Melanie Jones | October 09 2011 4:37 PM

Photo: Imagine Peace Tower Web site

The Imagine Peace Tower: A Tribute To Lennon's Legacy

Imagine Peace Tower was dedicated as a symbol of John Lennon's and Yoko Ono's campaign for world peace. Ono describes it as "a tower of light which emanates wisdom, healing and joy... [and] communicates awareness to the whole world that peace & love is what connects all lives on Earth."

Photo: Imagine Peace Tower Web site

Imagine Peace Tower Base

One of the mesmerizing features of the Tower is that the strength, brilliance, and intensity of its light changes with the weather and atmospheric conditions in Iceland, sometimes beaming rainbow refractions in rain or snowfall, at other times casting rays through a passing cloud.

Photo: Imagine Peace Tower Web site

Imagine Peace Tower's Lighting

In addition to its run through early December, the Tower is also lit through the Winter Solstice (December 21-28), through New Year's Eve, and in the first week of spring (May 21-28).

Photo: Creative Commons

Yoko Ono's Birthday

The tower was also lit for Yoko Ono's birthday, Feb, 18, 2010. Here, a group of workers and Ono supporters gather around the light.

Photo: Imagine Peace Tower Web site

Imagine Peace Inscriptions

The words "Imagine Peace" are inscribed on the Well, which serves as the Tower's base, in 24 different languages.

Photo: Imagine Peace Web site

Imagine Art

As well as a memorial, Ono wanted the Tower to be an interactive art piece. She chose Iceland in part because of the ways in which the light cast by the beam would be refracted and transformed by atmospheric change

John Lennon would have turned 71 today, and Yoko Ono, his widow, commemorated his birthday and legacy by live-streaming the lighting of the Imagine Peace Tower at 4 p.m. EST in Iceland.

The Imagine Peace Tower takes 15 searchlights and condenses their rays, using mirrors that act as prisms, to create a single beam of light that extends 4,000 meters into the air. The prisms reflect the column vertically into the sky from a 10-meter-wide wishing well inscribed with the words Imagine Peace in 24 different languages on its base. Buried underneath the light tower are more than 500,000 written wishes that Ono gathered over the years and collected in another project, called Wish Trees.

The Tower is located in Vioey Islan, Kollafjorour Bay, in Reykjavik, Iceland. Ono began construction on the site in early 2006 and officially switched the tower on in 2007. The opening ceremony was broadcast internationally to numerous television stations. Ono, her son, Sean Lennon, and Ringo Starr, as well as George Harrison's widow, Olivia Harrison, and Olivia's son, Dhani Harrison, attended the ceremony. Former bandmate and songwriting partner Paul McCartney was invited but could not attend.

The tower is lit every year from Oct. 9, John Lennon's birthday, to Dec. 8, the anniversary of his death. The ceremony began at 8 p.m. in Iceland (4pm EST).

In a statement released for this year's ceremony, Ono asked fans of the former Beatles star to tweet wishes to the Imagine Peace Tower Twitter page (@IPTower), or to send wishes by mail or e-mail, or through Facebook. I hope the Imagine Peace Tower will give light to the strong wishes of World Peace from all corners of the planet, she said, and give encouragement, inspiration and a sense of solidarity in a world now filled with fear and confusion.

Let us come together to realize a peaceful world. Love is our energy. Wisdom is our power. It's time to shed light to all corners of the world. Enjoy the trip we make together.