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Friday Mar 29, 2024

Wonder of illuminated world for Christmas


Nepalnews
2021 Dec 20, 17:11,
Christmas decoration illuminate one of the main avenues in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday. Photo: AP

In the darkest days of the year, in a very dark time, there is a longing for illumination.

And so, all around the world, the holiday lights go on — some of them humble, some of them spectacular, all of them a welcome respite from the dark.


Pedestrians walk past a Christmas tree next to Taksim mosque at Taksim square in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, Dec. 10, 2021.
Photo: AP
Pedestrians walk past a Christmas tree next to Taksim mosque at Taksim square in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, Dec. 10, 2021. Photo: AP
People walk through a tunnel of the holiday light displays Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, in Tokyo.
Photo: AP
People walk through a tunnel of the holiday light displays Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, in Tokyo. Photo: AP

They make the streets an interactive experience. There are tunnels of light — to walk through, as pedestrians do in Tokyo, at the zoo in Johannesburg, South Africa, and at the Holiday Road light show in Calabasas, California; to drive through, at a mall in Panay, the Philippines, where visitors remained in their cars to curb the spread of COVID-19.

There are real trees and manmade trees and ginormous trees, like the light sculpture in Vigo, Spain, said to be the biggest tree in the world, so big that adults and children stroll inside. Vigo goes all out for Christmas, stringing 11 million LED lights on more than 350 streets.


People walk in front of a Christmas decorated electronic store at Syntagma square in Athens, Greece.
Photo: AP
People walk in front of a Christmas decorated electronic store at Syntagma square in Athens, Greece. Photo: AP
People crowd around holiday lights and decorations which adorn a house in Brooklyn's Dyker Heights neighborhood.
Photo: AP
People crowd around holiday lights and decorations which adorn a house in Brooklyn's Dyker Heights neighborhood. Photo: AP

Some displays are municipal, like the silvery strings of light that adorn the lampposts of Moscow. Some are commercial, like the lights that wrap an electronics store in Syntagma Square in Athens, turning it into a massive giftbox. And some are private, like the over-the-top trimmings of homes in the Brooklyn, New York, neighborhood of Dyker Heights.

All are wonderful, in the most literal meaning of the word.


A boy is silhouetted against Christmas lights reflected on a pond as he walks through a park.
Photo: AP
A boy is silhouetted against Christmas lights reflected on a pond as he walks through a park. Photo: AP
A man walks by a Christmas tree during the lighting ceremony, outside the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, in Nazareth, Israel.
Photo: AP
A man walks by a Christmas tree during the lighting ceremony, outside the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, in Nazareth, Israel. Photo: AP

Is it possible that as the world struggles through its second Christmas season beset by disease, we need the lights to be brighter than ever? And so we spread them above like a celestial canopy in places from Barcelona, Spain, to the Old City of Damascus, Syria?

Is this how we rage against the dying of the light?

Visitors walk through a light tunnel at a Holiday Road light show in Calabasas, Calif.
Photo: AP
Visitors walk through a light tunnel at a Holiday Road light show in Calabasas, Calif. Photo: AP
Children walk through a light tunnel at the Johannesburg, South Africa, city zoo.
Photo: AP
Children walk through a light tunnel at the Johannesburg, South Africa, city zoo. Photo: AP
Row homes are seen covered in holiday decorations along the Miracle on 34th Street Hampden Christmas Street Holiday Show.
Photo: AP
Row homes are seen covered in holiday decorations along the Miracle on 34th Street Hampden Christmas Street Holiday Show. Photo: AP
A car passes by Christmas displays at a drive-thru Christmas installation outside a mall in Pasay, Philippines.
Photo: AP
A car passes by Christmas displays at a drive-thru Christmas installation outside a mall in Pasay, Philippines. Photo: AP
A person dressed as La Santa Muerte poses for a photo in Mexico City's main square the Zócalo, as the Christmas lights shine.
Photo: AP
A person dressed as La Santa Muerte poses for a photo in Mexico City's main square the Zócalo, as the Christmas lights shine. Photo: AP
People walk in the Old City of Damascus, Syria, decorated for the upcoming Christmas holidays.
Photo: AP
People walk in the Old City of Damascus, Syria, decorated for the upcoming Christmas holidays. Photo: AP

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