BETHLEHEM: Bethlehem ushered in Christmas with a stream of joyous marching bands and the triumphant arrival of the top Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, but few people were there to greet them as the coronavirus pandemic and a strict lockdown dampened celebrations in the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
Similar subdued scenes were repeated across the world.
Families that usually reunite on Christmas over a hearty, lingering meal stayed home, services were held online, and gift exchanges were low-key in one of the most unusual holiday seasons in decades.
The coronavirus left almost no one unaffected.
Patricia Hager, 60, delivered homemade caramel rolls for breakfast to family and friends in Bismarck, North Dakota, a US state that didn’t get hit until later in the pandemic but got hit hard. It seemed every time she opened her door this holiday season, someone had left smoked salmon, baskets of nuts or cookies.
“This year Christmas love is expressed at the door,” she said. “I’m glad that people will probably be with us next year with the vaccines. I can give up anything for that.”
With a child due in February, Song Ju-hyeon of Paju, South Korea, near Seoul, said home is the only place she feels safe. The government reported 1,241 new cases yesterday, a new daily record for the country.
“It doesn’t feel like Christmas anyway, there’re no carols being played on the streets,” she said.
“It’s Christmask,” the Daily Nation newspaper declared in Kenya, where a surge in cases led to doctors ending a brief strike Christmas Eve. Celebrations were muted in the East Africa hub as a curfew prevented overnight church vigils.
Pope Francis delivered his Christmas blessing from inside the Vatican, breaking with his traditional speech from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica to tens of thousands in St Peter’s Square.
Tourism in Italy has virtually vanished and the government’s coronavirus restrictions for the holidays foiled any plans by locals to flock to the square.
Citing a cause for optimism, Francis said the invention of Covid-19 vaccines shines “lights of hope” on the world. In a passionate appeal to leaders, businesses and international organisations, he said they must ensure that the most vulnerable and needy in the pandemic be first in line to receive the vaccines.
All many people want for Christmas this year is a simple hug, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth said in her annual festive message, saying it would be hard for those who lost loved ones to Covid-19 pandemic or were separated by curbs on social mixing.
In her traditional pre-recorded Christmas Day address to the nation, the 94-year-old monarch repeatedly spoke of hope for the future whilst acknowledging millions of Britons would be unable to have their usual family celebrations this year.
In Beijing, official churches abruptly cancelled Mass after China’s capital was put on high alert following two confirmed Covid-19 cases last week. Two new asymptomatic cases were reported yesterday.
With economies reeling around the world, it wasn’t a year of lavish gifts. Robin Sypniewski of Middlesex County, New Jersey, was furloughed twice from her job serving school lunches and is now on reduced hours as her husband retires next week as a trash collector and her daughter wrestles with student debt.
Sypniewski, 58, bought her daughter pajamas, compared to a diamond bracelet last Christmas. Her husband got a $20 plaque describing his Polish heritage, compared to a tablet computer last year.
“The bills have to be paid this month and next month. With the reduced hours, it’s tough,” she said.
In Sao Paulo, Brazil, taxi driver Dennys Abreu, 56, navigated the vast city overnight to cover the $300 monthly payment on his car, which he bought after losing a construction job. An estimated 14 million Brazilians are jobless.
“All I can do is to work as much as I can, get by and hope this damn virus disappears next year,” he said.
Church services shifted online. The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles celebrated five Masses at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, with attendance capped at 130 people, compared to a pre-pandemic capacity of about 3,000. All were livestreamed.
In Paris, members of Notre Dame Cathedral’s choir sang inside the church for the first time since a 2019 fire, wearing hard hats and protective suits against construction conditions.
Border closures and bottlenecks foiled some plans. Thousands of drivers were stranded in their trucks at the English port of Dover, lacking the coronavirus tests that France demands amid rising concern about a new, apparently more contagious, virus variant. The British army and French firemen were brought in to help speed up the testing and free food was distributed.
The 70 residents at St Peters, a nursing home in the northern Spanish town of El Astillero, held video chats or 30-minute visits with family, separated by a plexiglass wall.