It’s a Christmas unlike any other that took place Thursday in many countries, forced into festivities often restricted, even leaden, by a procession of restrictions ordered to fight against the pandemic.
The novel coronavirus has caused more than 1.7 million deaths on the planet and the sources of contamination which continue to appear remind us that despite the arrival of the first vaccines, life will not soon return to its normal course.
Pope Francis, who heads the 1.3 billion Catholics in the world, celebrated Christmas Eve mass in the gigantic St. Peter’s Basilica in the presence of less than 200 faithful wearing protective masks, mostly employees of the tiny Vatican State. The schedule had been brought forward by two hours, at 7:30 p.m. local time, to accommodate the curfew in effect in Italy, which begins at 10 p.m.
A little earlier, the sovereign pontiff turned to the Twitter network to address the faithful.
A son has been given to us. It is you, Jesus, the Son who makes me a son. You who do not leave me alone, help me to console your brothers, because from this night they are all my brothers. #Christmas
– Pope Francis (@Pontifex_fr) December 24, 2020
Before the pandemic, several thousand believers and tourists obtained a precious ticket to attend this papal mass.
Thursday evening, the Place Saint-Pierre, illuminated by its monumental Christmas tree, was completely deserted and crossed by a police car. The Italians indeed began Thursday a containment for the holidays, in the country most affected in Europe by the virus, with nearly 71,000 dead and more than two million people infected since the start of the pandemic.
The Christmas night mass commemorates in Christian tradition the birth of Jesus of Nazareth in Bethlehem.
In his homily, the Argentinian Pope stressed that the birth of a child is a reminder that one should not waste time “To cry over our fate, but to console the tears of the one who suffers”, to serve ” poor people “. Now the faithful “Hungry for entertainment, success and worldliness”, are “Often illiterate in kindness”, he regretted.
In a letter of support to Lebanese of all faiths sent Thursday for Christmas, the Pope also announced on Thursday that he “Visit as soon as possible” Lebanon facing a severe economic crisis and tensions.
François, who has just celebrated his 84th birthday, will send his eighth Christmas message “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the city and to the world”) Friday by video inside the Apostolic Palace, to prevent a crowd from gathering in St. Peter’s Square to see it as usual from a loggia.
Empty Bethlehem
It was under a gray sky that a small crowd had gone a little earlier to attend the traditional Christmas procession in the streets of Bethlehem, which usually attracts thousands of pilgrims.
A few hundred people wearing sanitary masks and umbrellas watched the parade fluttering Palestinian and Vatican flags, to the sound of drums and bagpipes. “Despite the fear and frustration associated with Covid-19, we will overcome this ordeal because Jesus was born in Bethlehem”, said the new Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa.
“It’s different this year because we don’t come to pray at the Church of the Nativity, we can’t get together as a family, everyone is afraid”, confided Jania Shaheen, present with her husband and her two children Place de la Manger in front of the basilica built where Jesus was born according to tradition.
Thursday evening in Bethlehem, there will be no mass in public, no processions of Palestinian leaders but a Christmas mass bringing together only the clergy and televised around the world.
Christmas in Dover
L’Germany was forced to cancel its famous Christmas markets while at the Kuwait, the churches were closed until January 10 despite the presence of a large Christian community and while a vaccination campaign was under way.
The Republic of Congo Brazzaville announced a re-containment on Christmas Day and January 1, angering the bishops.
To the Philippines, some have chosen to spend the holidays alone because of the risks in public transport. “I’m going to order food, watch old movies again and make a video call with my family”said Kim Patria, 31, who lives alone in Manila.
In Qamichli, in the northeast of the Syria controlled by the Kurdish forces, the population ignored the pandemic and attended in large numbers a ceremony of lighting a tree in a Christian quarter.
In the crowd, there were more Christmas hats than masks, while security forces were deployed for the occasion. Muslims and Christians mingled to dance dabké to traditional music in front of the illuminated tree.
Thousands of European truckers spent New Years Eve in rough conditions, stuck around the port of Dover in the UK, which is slowly emerging from the isolation caused by the appearance on its soil of a new strain of the virus.
“Everyone tells us to come here and just wait but we don’t want to wait! “, deplored the Polish driver Ezdrasz Szwaja at the old Manston airport, where the British government must subject thousands of truckers to a drug test.
“They say there will be a Covid test for us” more “Nothing comes”, “We have no information, nothing”, he adds, very moved. “I have two very small children, a wife, I just want to go” Poland.
3,300 dead in the United States, the masked Santa Claus
To the United States, where the Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc with nearly 3,300 dead and 223,000 confirmed cases in 24 hours, Christmas Eve is also marked by the pandemic.
Entrenched in his club in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, outgoing President Donald Trump, increasingly isolated in his crusade to try to reverse Joe Biden’s presidential victory, posted his end-of-year wishes on Twitter, amid tweets denouncing without proof the «Frauds» and an election “Rigged”.
In a message recorded with Melania Trump, with strong religious accents, the American billionaire greeted the “Christmas miracle” that constitutes in his eyes the beginning of the vaccination campaign which, although it shows delays in the schedule, has already made it possible to inject a first dose to a million Americans according to the authorities.
Maybe Donald Trump can attend another « miracle » on the night of Thursday to Friday, and see Santa Claus pass by, who has received formal authorization from the Florida Department of Agriculture to move there using his reindeer, without paying customs fees, and enter each home to drop off their gifts.
Santa Claus will however have to wear a mask during his tour, specifies the department on which the animals and livestock depend, despite the fact that the Dr Anthony Fauci said last week that he traveled to the North Pole to vaccinate the famous character with the red coat. “He can go down the chimney, he can leave the presents… You have nothing to fear”, had assured Saturday the “Mr. Covid-19” of the White House.
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