Once a huge holiday event sponsored by the entire campus, Murray State’s annual Hanging of the Green will be in the Curris Center tonight at 6:30 p.m.

After the University started pulling from the Hanging of the Green’s budget, it was eventually let go until the Residential College Association picked it back up in 2006.

The RCA is a part of the Student Government Association and advises the University administration on a wide range of topics regarding the residential colleges, but it also sponsors activities on campus like Hanging of the Green.

Now that Hanging of the Green is a student-run event, it does not have the financial backing it once had. RCA uses funds it receives from SGA and Housing Office.

“We’ve started doing this on the same night as a children’s event that is usually going on in one of the upstairs ballrooms,” said Derrick McReynolds, assistant director of residence education. “So whenever they let out, they hear the singing and come and interact with the college students.”

There will be food, activities and musical entertainment for those who attend.

Each year at the event, RCA provides the colleges with a Christmas tree to decorate for their residential college. Each residential college sponsors a booth with different activities ranging from making snow globes to making Christmas ornaments.

There are approximately 200 people who attend each year. The event is focused mostly on students, but faculty, staff and the surrounding community are encouraged to attend as well.

This week, students who went to the Curris Center could see the 30-foot Christmas tree as it was decorated in preparation for its lighting tonight.

Each year, the RCA asks an honored guest to come and give a speech and announce the lighting of the tree, which happens near the end of the event.

Story by Brandon Cash, Staff writer