Amid the shadow cast by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s war on Hamas, Pope Francis on Sunday began the world’s celebration of Christmas with an appeal for peace.
Meanwhile, children all across the world used www.noradsanta.org, a 3-D interactive website hosted yearly by a joint US-Canadian military monitoring outfit, to track Santa, his reindeer, and their sleigh filled with gifts.
And celebrants wore Santa’s red hats everywhere to get a boost of holiday spirit from a variety of recreational pursuits, including a city run in Spopje, a surfing session in Florida, a jog through the woods outside of Paris, a swim in the sea close to the port of Dover, and a dip in Lak Geneva.
At the Vatican, the pope struck a somber tone.
“Tonight, our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war, by the clash of arms that even today prevents him from finding room in the world,” the pope said, adding that Jesus “does not eliminate injustice from above by a show of force, but from below, by a show of love”.
Earlier in the day, the pontiff had said: “We are close to our brothers and sisters who are suffering from war — we are thinking of Palestine, of Israel, of Ukraine”.
‘Hard to celebrate’
The yearly Christmas celebrations that often bring thousands of tourists to Bethlehem, the historical city in the occupied West Bank where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born in a manger more than 2000 years ago, were essentially canceled.
This year, the town settled for a few festive lights instead of its enormous Christmas tree, marching bands, and grandiose nativity scene.
A massive Palestinian flag with the slogan “The bells of Bethlehem ring for a ceasefire in Gaza” was unfurled in the middle of the town.
“A lot of people are dying for this land,” said Nicole Najjar, an 18-year-old student. “It’s really hard to celebrate while our people are dying.”
The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, arrived Sunday at the Church of the Nativity, clad in the traditional black and white keffiyeh.
“Our heart goes to Gaza, to all people in Gaza but a special attention to our Christian community in Gaza who is suffering,” he said.
“We are here to pray and to ask not only for a ceasefire, a ceasefire is not enough, we have to stop these hostilities and to turn the page because violence generates only violence.”
Approximately 1,140 persons died in Israel as a result of the Hamas strike on October 7, the majority of whom being civilians, according to an AFP count based on the most recent official Israeli numbers.
Around 250 other persons were kidnapped by the Palestinian terrorists; according to Israel, 129 of them are still in Gaza.
In response to Israel’s unrelenting retaliation, the territory has launched a ground invasion and prolonged bombing of Gaza, killing 20,424 people—mostly women and children, according to the most recent death toll provided by the health ministry of the territory.
New Christmas Day
Ukraine, invaded by Russia nearly two years ago, is celebrating Christmas on December 25 for the first time, jettisoning the traditional Orthodox date of January 7, which is feted in Russia, as a snub to Moscow.
“All Ukrainians are together. We all celebrate Christmas together. On the same date, as one big family, as one nation, as one united country,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a Christmas message released Sunday evening.
In the southern Black Sea port of Odesa, churchgoers prayed and lit candles as priests in gold vestments held Christmas Eve service in the Cathedral of the Nativity, decorated with fir trees and a nativity scene.
“We believe that we really should celebrate Christmas with the whole world, far away, far away from Moscow. For me that’s the new message now,” said one smiling parishioner, Olena, whose son is a medic on the front line.
The shift in dates, away from the Orthodox Church’s preferred Gregorian calendar, is a component of efforts made to eradicate remnants of the Soviet and Russian empires since the invasion.
The government-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine is rapidly expanding and has taken over multiple church buildings connected to Russia, displacing priests and even entire parishes.
Syria’s Prayers
There was little sign of Christmas cheer in Syria’s cities, where main churches have limited celebrations to prayers in solidarity with Palestinians suffering war in Gaza.
“In Palestine, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, people are suffering,” the Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo, Mor Dionysius Antoine Shahda, told AFP.
The patriarchs of the Greek Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, and Melkite Greek Catholic churches in Syria, in addition to the Catholic Church, canceled Christmas celebrations and restricted them to religious rituals.