Kyiv lights Christmas tree according to new calendar
Kyiv, UkraineReuters Crowds flocked to one of Kyiv’s most beloved squares on Wednesday to see the Ukraine’s main Christmas tree lit up to mark Saint Nicholas Day according to a new calendar celebrating Christmas on 25th December. With their military locked in the 21-month-old war against Russia, it was the first time many Ukrainians marked […]
Santa brings Christmas cheer to Chad refugee camp
N’Djamena, Chad Reuters A 37 year-old Central African Republic refugee, Henriette Batnan, could not afford buying a Christmas present for her son Edouard, who fled home with her in 2017. Instead, she dressed him in ceremonial robes so he could meet Santa Claus, who visited the Dembo Refugee Camp in southern Chad on Wednesday, bringing […]
Fog-shrouded Kyiv recovers after Russia strikes, power restored to six million
Kyiv, Ukraine Reuters Basic services were being restored in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on Saturday after the latest wave of Russian air strikes on critical infrastructure, as residents navigated a city gripped by fog and girded for a holiday season marked by uncertainty. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a quarter of Kyiv remained without heating but that […]
Petition urges Kyiv authorities not to erect tree over festive period
Kyiv, UkraineReuters Thousands of Kyiv residents have signed a petition urging city authorities not to erect a giant tree during this year’s festive period, and instead to give money to the army and to people displaced by the war with Russia. The Kyiv tree, which in recent years has been set up in front of […]
A Sustainable Life: Sustainable Christmas trees – an ecologist’s buying guide
UK-based ecologist PAUL CAPLAT, in an article first published on The Conversation, looks at what factors to consider when aiming to buy a more sustainable Christmas tree…
Hoping Omicron won’t wreck Christmas, Bethlehem lights up tree
Bethlehem, West BankReuters Residents lit up a giant Christmas tree outside Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity on Saturday, hoping that a new coronavirus variant doesn’t ruin another holiday season in the traditional birthplace of Jesus. The Palestinian city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank was all but closed last Christmas, losing its peak tourist season to […]
Norway’s “threadbare” Christmas tree present underwhelms some in Britain
London, UK Reuters Norway’s annual Christmas tree gift to London provoked unseasonably abrupt responses on Thursday, including demands that the 24-metre Norwegian spruce be replaced, after it appeared to be less than symmetrical with some broken branches. Every year, a tree is felled outside Oslo and sent to London’s Trafalgar Square as an offering of […]
Christmas kicks off in NYC with Rockefeller tree arrival
New York, USAP New York City ushered in the holiday season Saturday with the arrival of a 24-metre tall Norway spruce that will serve as one of the world’s most famous Christmas trees, in Rockefeller Center. The 12-ton tree was trucked in from the Price family home in Elkton, Maryland – the first time the […]
Vatican unveils Nativity scene and lights up tree for Christmas
Vatican CityRNS Let there be light. The 30-metre-tall spruce placed just off-centre in Saint Peter’s Square was lit during a small and socially distanced ceremony on Friday as prelates invoked a spirit of peace and encounter after a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, a light will also illuminate the Holy Family in […]
Christmas tree-lighting in Bethlehem a muted, virtual event
BethlehemAP Only a few dozen people attended the lighting of the Christmas tree in the Biblical city of Bethlehem on Saturday night, as coronavirus restrictions scaled back the annual event that is normally attended by thousands. A small group of residents and religious leaders participated in the tree-lighting ceremony at Manger Square near the Church […]