Time of light” “” “

As the Christmas holidays approach, innumerable initiatives are being promoted in various European countries to celebrate this solemnity. They are characterised by a combination of tradition and technology, without ignoring the religious significance of the event. Not only the Churches, but also associations, movements and local institutions are exploiting all their creativity to combine, in the best possible way, celebration, faith and solidarity, without distinctions, as some of the experiences we describe below demonstrate. THE HIGHEST CHRISTMAS TREE. Inaugurated in Warsaw in recent days, it’s 72 metres high and is lit up by two million lamp bulbs. It’s the world’s highest artificial Christmas tree – at least according to the municipal authorities of the capital of Poland. The moment when the lights were switched on was transmitted live by various television stations in the country. The tree was installed in front of the imposing 230 metre high Palace of Culture, offered to Poland by Stalin in the 1950s. Now a cold snap is awaited to complete a skating rink below the tree. Again in Poland, the local pontifical mission-aid societies have been conducting a Christmas campaign called “Kolednicy Misyjni” for the last thirteen years with the aim of collecting funds for the poor and the disadvantaged. The funds collected this year will be devolved to the children of Indonesia who are still suffering the consequences of the tsunami. From 26 December to 6 January Polish children will go from house to house, in small groups together with catechists, wearing traditional Christmas costumes, to present a brief recital on the birth of Jesus. PRAYING WITH SMS. In France the SMS service has been active since 27 November, since the start of Advent, but is now moving into top gear as Christmas approaches. The service consists of the sending of mobile phone text messages promoted by the Catholic site croire.com to enable its subscribers to prepare in a Christian way for Christmas. Each morning at nine your mobile phone vibrates to warn you of the arrival of the text message with a prayer, a reflection or a comment to accompany the faithful every day until Epiphany. There are over 2000 subscribers to the service. Over 100,000 visit the site each month. A PARTICULAR FAST. Fasting from Christmas cards: that’s one of the initiatives promoted by the Catholic Church of ENGLAND and WALES. In a country where people have recourse to writing in every circumstance of life and Christmas cards tend to replace telephone calls or good wishes exchanged in person, some parishes have asked the faithful to donate the money they would otherwise have spent on cards to charities, especially for the homeless. In PORTUGAL, the Social Action Group (SAG) of the parish of the town of Perafita (Matosinhos) is also campaigning for the relief of the homeless. A celebration and Christmas dinner is planned for all the homeless of the city of Porto on 25 December. Responding to an appeal of the Portuguese Caritas agency in Funchal, the children of the “O Polegarzinho” kindergarten will donate a new toy to less fortunate children. THE REVIVAL OF THE CHRISTMAS CRIB. Always less popular than the Christmas tree, the crib seems to be making a comeback this year. In ScoTLAND it is even re-acquiring visibility in public places (see SIR 86/2005), while its appearance in Spain has even entered the Guinness Book of Records. At Saragossa the local town council has installed a Christmas crib no less than 2 km square, the largest in SPAIN: 600 cubic metres of earth, running water, thousands of lights and a hundred life-size figures were used in its construction. This huge crib was installed in front of the Marian sanctuary of Pilar (http://www.zaragozacultural.com/files/portal(1).htm). Saragossa maintains the record, but the city council of Madrid runs it close with its Azca crib, one of the largest in Europe, comprising 1200 figures. It has already been visited by over 23,000 people and at weekends is visited by an average of 4,500. The city council of Madrid has also bought millions of low consumption micro-lamps to illuminate the city up till 7 January. SOLIDARITY BY CANDELIGHT. Christmas lights are also illuminating the darkness in SWITZERLAND. A million candles lit up squares, bridges and public buildings in 30 cities of the country on 17 and 18 December. This is an initiative of Caritas, which in this way wished to support some charities both in Switzerland and abroad. From Switzerland the lights were also transferred to neighbouring GermanY for the same purpose: “fostering solidarity in countries whose prosperity is measured against that of the poor”. Solidarity is also a value being pursued in Switzerland, where a fund-raising campaign, traditional during Epiphany, is being held; the proceeds will be used to restore three parish churches in the regions of Valais, Jura and Tessin. Candles are also being lit in IrEland, in the diocese of Kildare, where the “Reach Out” campaign is now in progress: its aim is to reach out to those who don’t normally come to church. The local bishop, Jim Moriarty, has invited diocesan faithful to present as gifts the candles of the campaign and invite their neighbours, or new arrivals to the area, such as immigrants and new workers, to lunch or dinner. “10 million stars” is the initiative organized by Secours Catholique of the Bishops’ Conference of FrancE. The aim is to use candles as metaphors. Each candle corresponds to a project to be conducted at the local, national or international level. The 106 delegates of the French dioceses will join together with other volunteers to help distribute the some 3 million candles to support projects such as the training of guide dogs for the blind, family homes for single mothers and their children, an internet laboratory for disabled youth, funds to permit a period of holiday for poor families, the issuing of licences to young people to help them find a job, and the construction of homes for the elderly and abandoned children in Madagascar. Similarly, the Christmas project of the diocese of Nola ( ITALY) is building a bigger kindergarten for the children in the village of Himberty in Eritrea. The present structure consists of five classrooms, which are not enough for the children of the village. In order not to create discrimination, the children to be admitted are drawn by lot, while the doubling of the number of classrooms could enable the kindergarten – the only institution in the area for the promotion and education of infants – to accept everyone. A LIGHT FROM BETHLEHEM. A particular light is passing through the streets of Europe at the present time. It’s the light of Peace that began its journey from Bethlehem where it was lit by an Austrian child on 13 December. Now in its 20th year, the project, a brainchild of Viennese scouts in 1986, entails the transport of the flame by air to the capital of Austria where its arrival is greeted by groups of scouts from all over Europe. From that flame others are lit in turn and taken northwards, southwards, eastwards and westwards. The light of Bethlehem arrived in ItalY on 17 December, and at Lausanne in Switzerland on the 19th. PHILATELIC RARITY? The hope is that they won’t become a philatelic rarity, but for the first time in the history of the NETHERLANDS the birth of Jesus has become the subject for a series of postage stamps. The national Post Office of Holland has issued a series of stamps celebrating the events of Christmas. This “exceptional” initiative was hailed by Cardinal Adrianus Simonis, who observed: “For years this feast has been ignored in stamps. Evidently some people thought that a public reference to Christianity was better avoided. Today we are witnessing a small miracle of Christmas; some one has dared to break this taboo”. The initiative, continued Simonis, is also “smart”. By purchasing the stamps at 10 cents each, the public is also supporting a number of charities. Something similar has also happened in the UNITED KINGDOM, where the Royal Mail, after an intermission of five years, has once again issued stamps with scenes of the Nativity for this Christmas. ETHNIC CHRISTMAS. An appeal to bring musical instruments or to present a Christmas carol typical of the country from which they come was made by the national Service for youth ministry of the Bishops’ Conference of BelgiUM to the foreign students invited to take part in a Christmas festivity in Brussels on 24 December. The preparation of dinner will be followed at 8.00 pm by a eucharistic celebration animated by inter-ethnic dancing, singing and prayers and an exchange of gifts. The Belgian Damien Foundation, which pursues the objective of defending human rights, held a fund-raising concert in recent days, given by the gospel and spiritual singer Lea Gilmore; proceeds were devolved to the cause of lepers and the victims of TB. A FOOTBALL TOMBOLA. A football-themed charity event to raise funds for sick children was held in Naples (ITALY) on 19 December. “They have already scored many goals. Now it’s your turn: score the most important goal of all. Give them a smile” is the slogan thought up for “Bingoal by night”, a tombola-show with original strips of footballers of various periods and of national and international teams as prizes. Promoted by the project for the protection of children’s health run by the city council, in collaboration with the paediatric hospital “Santobono-Pausillipon” and the “Carmine Gallo” association, the aim of the event was to collect funds for the department of paediatric oncology at the Pausillipon hospital.