102 Bulgarian Muncipalities Take Part in Earth Hour 2013

Cities and towns in 102 Bulgarian municipalities will turn off the lights at their main buildings to join the Earth Hour initiative, the environment group WWF announced.

Earth Hour will be held in Bulgaria on Saturday, March 23, between 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm, when electric lights will be shut down as a reminder about climate change and the need to reduce our imprint. Street lighting will be kept on for safety reasons.

This will be the country's sixth participation in the event. Candlelight concerts and processions will be held across Bulgaria.

In Sofia, lights will be shut down on official buildings across the city such as the Presidential Office, the Parliament, the building of the Central bank, and of the ministries. Buildings of significance, like the National Theater, the National Library, the Military Club, the National Gallery of Art, the Alexander Nevski Cathedral, churches, museums, hotels, and many others will be also left dark.

A concert with the participation of many Bulgarian celebrities, followed by a light show, will be held in the park in front of the National Theater in the capital, starting at 7:30 pm.

This year for the first time ever Moscow is joining the initiative by dimming for one hour the lights of the red stars on the Kremlin towers and the lights on the Red Square.

On Earth Hour people around the world will switch off their lights and power appliances for one hour, the action being a mainly symbolical global call to action to every individual, business and every community throughout the world to save energy and help prevent the deterioration of the global climate.

The idea behind it is for people to gather, to spend some time with friends in "peace and quiet", and have time to reflect on "themselves and their lives", according to the WWF.

The idea for Earth Hour originated in 2007 in Sydney, Australia, when 2,2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change.

The Australian initiative proved highly popular around the world and a year later Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries joining in.