Church of Our Lady of Light, Chennai this church is considered to be one of the oldest European monuments in India. The feast of Our Lady of Light is celebrated on 15 August every year which is also the day of Indian independence and hence a national holiday. The day is also as the feast of "Assumption of Mary". The feast is celebrated with a grand mass and car procession. The Novena prayer to Our Lady of Light is as follows Church of Our Lady of Light, Chennai Church of Our Lady of Light () is a Roman Catholic shrine in Chennai, India. It is commonly called
Independence Day (India) and 1946. The celebration was marked by meetings where the attendants took the "pledge of independence". Jawaharlal Nehru described in his autobiography that such meetings were peaceful, solemn, and "without any speeches or exhortation". Gandhi envisaged that besides the meetings, the day would be spent "... in doing some constructive work, whether it is spinning, or service of 'untouchables,' or reunion of Hindus and Mussalmans, or prohibition work, or even all these together". Following actual independence in 1947, the Constitution of India came into effect on and from 26 January 1950; since then 26 January is celebrated as Republic Day.