Let’s turn holiday lights on!

Are you already in a low-key start for Happy December?

There is no Christmas atmosphere without warm clothes, delicious smelling cookies, Christmas carols, the lights of a bright city and a Christmas tree.

In Ljubljana for several days now the city has been getting decorated to conjure up a Christmas atmosphere for people, despite the coronavirus pandemic.

The Christmas spruce in Prešeren Square is already standing. Fifty kilometres of lights are hanging and last Friday they lighted up for the first time.

But because of the coronavirus, the traditional turning on of lights was different than before. There was no event, not even the mayor’s address. The City of Ljubljana says that the lights were turned on in the middle of the day and not in the afternoon as usual.

»Although gathering is not allowed at the moment, it will still be nice. The people of Ljubljana will be able to see the decoration on a walk and thus feel a bit of the Christmas atmosphere,« said the municipality.

For the second year in a row, this year’s decorations were taken care of by Urban Modic, the son of Zmago Modic, who has been decorating Ljubljana for twenty-one years. Much of the decorations remain the same as in previous years, but some elements will be new.

The theme of this year’s decorations is »the vulnerability and durability of life«.

All concerts are also cancelled this year.

What about New Year’s Eve fireworks?

The municipality wants the situation to improve enough to be able to hold a Christmas fair and New Year’s Eve fireworks.

The lights were also turned on in other cities in Slovenia – in Maribor, Koper, Novo mesto, Kranj and Celje. The coronavirus, however, prevented concerts and other events everywhere, which in previous years were crowded in festive December.

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The original version of this article was published on November 27th.

English translation courtesy of JL Flanner, Total Slovenia News, an English language website with news from and about Slovenia.