Christmas

More than 18,000 LED lights have been lit, used as a Christmas tree decoration in California, believed to be the highest in the world, world agencies reported.

The thirty-five-foot white fir in front of Citadel Outlets in Commerce, California is also decorated with 10,000 ornaments.
With the LED lights on, the celebration of the Christmas holidays began.

The thrill of the Christmas celebration has already grasped locals in Turkey's western Burdur province but in a different way. Some 300 women have started working hard to prepare at least 650,000 Christmas wreaths which will be exported to countries such as Britain, Germany, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and probably the United States until December.

The first for the year longer holiday for workers is for Easter, which will be celebrated on April 28th. The holiday will take a total of 4 days - from Friday, April 26th to Monday, April 29th, inclusive.
 

Tanjug learned this from the Church Council of the St. Sava Parish.

In his message, addressed also to the clergy and the monastic community of the Serbian Church (SPC) Vucic wished that the holiday brings "peace, love, tolerance and the strength to overcome the differences between us," and added:

Retail offers and sales for 2019 started before the change of the new year at several outlets across Greece, even though winter sales do not officially kick off until Monday, January 14, and run through Thursday, February 28.

Pope Francis on Monday assailed the "insatiable greed" of today's consumerism, calling on people in his Christmas homily to make "sharing and giving" more a part of their live, reports AFP. 

"Mankind became greedy and voracious," the leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics said in an address to thousands of followers in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.

President Klaus Iohannis on Monday sent a message to Romanians on the occasion of Christmas, saying that the birth of the Lord represents a celebration of the miracle of life and a celebration of goodness, compassion and generosity.

Brnabic also extended her holiday greetings to all believers who celebrate the holiday according to the Gregorian calendar.

84% of Bulgarians will celebrate Christmas at home, 11% intend to visit relatives, and just 2% are to celebrate abroad, according to data from a poll conducted by the Exacta Research Group and quoted by the Bulgarian National Radio.