The third Aurora Prize and the accompanying weekend of activities will start on June 8, in Yerevan. As the official website of the Prize reports in a press statement, apart from the prize ceremony, there will be various opportunities to hear members of the Selection Committee or other guests at public events around Yerevan.
Unlike the prize ceremonies of 2016 and 2017, the 2018 ceremony is divided in three parts – a trilogy. The first part is a program at TUMO on Saturday evening at 6 pm. This program, entitled HONORING HUMANITARIANS will introduce the three AURORA HUMANITARIANS – U Kyaw Hla Aung of Myanmar, Sunitha Krishnan, of India and Father Tomás González Castillo from Mexico. Master of ceremonies David Ignatius will return to lead this and the other segments of the Trilogy.
The second part is a sunrise ceremony which will take place about 30 minutes outside Yerevan, as close to Mount Ararat as it’s possible to get, within Armenia’s borders. The timing and the location are both symbolic. Aurora means ‘dawn’ and is dedicated to awakening humanity. The presentation of the 2018 Aurora Laureate will be made there, at dawn, in the presence of a relatively small community of invited humanitarians.
A special ceremony dedicated to the inscription of the 2018 Aurora Prize Laureate’s name in the Chronicles of Aurora will also take place on June 10, 2018, at the Matenadaran, home to one of the world’s richest depositories of medieval manuscripts and books. Chronicles of Aurora, the hand-written tome containing depictions of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative activities, will have new stories about the Aurora Humanitarians and the Laureate added each year.
“Aurora 2018: A Tribute to the 2018 Laureate” is the concluding portion which will take place on June 10 in an evening ceremony at the A. Spendiaryan National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. There, the Co-Founders of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative and guests will gather to celebrate the power of humanity and exceptional courage and impact of the 2018 Aurora Prize Laureate.
The global public can follow the weekend of events intended to serve as manifestation of the Aurora commitment to Gratitude in Action, rooted in a sense of responsibility to our common humanity, the source said.