{"id":26820,"date":"2018-12-24T23:22:48","date_gmt":"2018-12-24T23:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=26820"},"modified":"2018-12-24T23:22:48","modified_gmt":"2018-12-24T23:22:48","slug":"christmas-is-about-keeping-hope-alive-says-bethlehem-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=26820","title":{"rendered":"Christmas is about keeping hope alive, says Bethlehem mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nDAMASCUS: Damascus on Saturday night lit up its tallest Christmas tree in Abbasid Square amid joyous celebrations.<\/p>\n

\nA Christmas scout band paraded through a number of the capital\u2019s neighborhoods, ending in the square, which was repeatedly shelled by Daesh before the Syrian Army seized the terrorist group\u2019s last stronghold in southern Damascus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThe band played Christmas music, and the accompanying parade gave presents to children and passersby.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThousands of people from across Damascus gathered in Abbasid Square to watch the 30-meter-tall Christmas tree being lit up.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cMy daughter was born in 2010 and has never seen Christmas in Damascus before,\u201d Rita Shalhoub, who came with her family from the Jaramana district to witness the event, told Arab News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe continued to celebrate the occasion at home during the past seven years, but our celebrations were overshadowed by the pain of war and the fear of death, in addition to long, depressing power outages,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cDaesh made sure they shelled Damascus during holidays, and joy was often stolen by the horror and deaths of civilians. The streets would be empty by the end of December as most of us feared leaving our homes during the holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nIn early December, streets, squares, shops and homes in the cities of Homs, Aleppo, Damascus, Latakia, Tartus and Hama were decorated with Christmas lights and ornaments in preparation for Syria\u2019s first safe holiday season since 2011.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/p>\n

\nBoth Christians and Muslims look forward to celebrating the occasion, and many Muslim families decorated trees in their homes, prompting jokes on social media about Christians taking photos next to Muslims\u2019 Christmas trees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOur Muslim neighbors set up better decorations than we did,\u201d said Meray, a Christian school teacher who lives in Al-Muhajirin district in Damascus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nElectricity supply has improved so unlike previous years, people can now enjoy Christmas lights, she added.<\/p>\n

\nAbu Ahmed, an electrical engineer whose son was killed three years ago in a mortar attack on Abbasid Square, said he did not think he would ever see open-air Christmas celebrations in any part of Damascus, let alone in this square, which was once one of the most dangerous parts of the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nReem Youssef, a Damascus-based architect, said: \u201cWhat makes this year special is the safety we\u2019re enjoying in Damascus, especially in the neighborhoods known for their Christmas celebrations and decorations before the war. This year\u2019s celebrations remind me of Christmas before the war.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nShe added: \u201cLike Christians, Muslims in Syria anticipate this occasion and its atmosphere, and head to markets in December to shop in preparation to attend Christmas and New Year\u2019s Eve parties in restaurants across the city.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nShe said: \u201cI believe this atmosphere reflects the safety and security that has begun to gradually return to Syria. We hope the country will soon return to its state before the war.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAMASCUS: Damascus on Saturday night lit up its tallest Christmas tree in Abbasid Square amid joyous celebrations. A Christmas scout band paraded through a number of the capital\u2019s neighborhoods, ending in the square, which was repeatedly shelled by Daesh before the Syrian Army seized the terrorist group\u2019s last stronghold in southern Damascus.\u00a0 The band played…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":26821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}