President Zuzana Čaputová takes over the BETHLEHEM LIGHT!
The Bethlehem light is already shining in the presidential palace, but everything could have been different. Shortly before the arrival of the head of state, a lantern blew with light. However, the young scouts were well prepared and brought three glowing lanterns to the palace!
The head of state claims that this year’s Bethlehem light is, among other things, a symbol of determination and courage, otherwise it is a traditional symbol of peace and tranquility. “And these are, I think, the values we need to look at and come during the Christmas season,” stated. She thanked the scouts for the work she did during the year and for maintaining the tradition of Bethlehem light in Slovakia.
The head of the Slovak Scouting, Ján Mitrík, stated that Bethlehem was the first in Slovakia to bring the light. He pointed out that the light would be distributed to several places in the country, where people would be able to blow it up and bring it to their homes. On Saturday (December 11) evening, Slovak scouts took over the Bethlehem light from scouts from Austria, and on Sunday (December 12) it was handed over to Polish scouts at the Polish-Slovak border, as well as scouts from Ukraine at the border.
Due to the pandemic situation, the scouts do not organize a mass train transport this year, it will only be a symbolic transport of Bethlehem light from Bratislava to Košice. The ride will take place on December 18, and it will not be possible to blow the light. Bethlehem Light will be distributed throughout Slovakia in the coming days to be available in as many cities as possible. The firing of the Bethlehem light will be in accordance with all currently valid pandemic measures, ie the effort to be contactless and without assembly.
The main places to fire the Bethlehem light will be primarily churches and traditional settlements in the cities. The Bethlehem Light will traditionally travel to Lomnický štít until 19 December.
The tradition of light from Bethlehem dates back to the end of the 11th century, from the period of the Crusades. One of the members of this expedition, a young man from the Italian city of Florence, promised that if he survived the expedition, he would bring home the flames of the “eternal” light that burns in Bethlehem. The light that the other inhabitants of Florence subsequently fired and took home became a symbol of hope, love and understanding – universal values uniting people. The modern tradition of spreading the flame from Bethlehem was revived in Austria.
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Authors:
TASR, kuj