World UFO Day and UP Chapel

Dateline: July 2.  World UFO Day. World UFO day is the day dedicated to the existence of Undentified Flying Object to mark  the Roswell incident in 1947 when an airborne object (believed UFO)  crashed on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico, The most popular theory of what happened is that the object was a spacecraft containing extraterrestrial life. Since the late 1970s, the Roswell incident has been the subject of much controversy, and conspiracy theories have arisen about the event.The first World UFO Day was celebrated in 2001. The organizers say that they "see a future in which UFOs aren’t speculations anymore, but part of daily life."

Eight years later. a UFO landed in UP Diliman. In 1955, Father Delaney commissioned Locsin to design a chapel that was open and could easily accommodate 1,000 people.Mass was first celebrated in the church on December 20, 1955.

 The Church of Holy Sacrifice became the first circular chapel with the altar in its center in the country, and the first to have a thin shell concrete dome.

The dome of the church is supported by pillars located along its rim; no supports block the space inside. The unique design of the dome allows natural lighting and ventilation. At the middle of the dome is a circular skylight, which supports the triangular bell tower. The bell tower, then extends to the interior, supporting the crucifix. The arrangement of the interior of the church is concentric, with the altar in the middle.

The floor of the church was designed by Arturo Luz, the Stations of the Cross by Vicente Manansala and Ang Kiukok, and the double-sided crucifix and altar base by Napoleon Abueva, all of whom are now National Artists. Since then, there have been modifications to the church and its surroundings; the altar base was changed from wood to marble, still by Napoleon Abueva and it is now fenced off, and the once open grounds that surrounded the church are now landscaped.