Christmas Tree at St Peter's Square Lit Today

Today (20 Dec) at 4.30 pm, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo presided over the ceremony of lightning the Christmas tree at the St Peter's Square. The event will also be attended by the authorities from Calabria, Italy, where this year's tree comes from.Full text of the news in Czech: HERE.

Vatican: The fir from the Sila National Park in Calabria was erected at the square last Wednesday. It is more than 30 metres high and weighs 7 tonnes.

The tree stands next to the nativity scene, which will be inaugurated on the evening of 24 December. It has 17 life-size figures. 9 of these were originally donated by St Vincent Pallotti for the Roman church of St Andrew (Sant'Andrea della Valle) in 1842. The other 8 figures were added over the course of years. The Italian province of Trento and the local council of Tesero gave further 13 wooden figures and animals, as well as household utensils for the depiction of daily life.

Over the Christmas period, the association Friends of the Nativity Scene of Tesero will hold an exhibition of old nativity scenes in the Paul VI Hall.

The tradition of placing a nativity scene and Christmas tree in St Peter's Square began in 1982, during the pontificate of John Paul II.