Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Provinces, SANA – A 22 m tall Christmas tree was lit up in Safita city in Tartous province on Saturday in honor of Syria’s martyrs.
The event was attended by a Greek religious delegation currently visiting Syria and presided by Elder Elisaios, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Simonos Petras, Mt Athos-Greece.
“We came to Syria to send a message of joy and hope to its people that the future will be better,” Elisaios said in a statement to SANA.
“We are anguished because the Syrian people have to suffer such great tragedies, and we pray to God to remove the injustice and suffering they are going through” he added.
Abbot Elisaios said that Greece, as a member state in the European Union, will work to help the Syrian people be given the chance to live with dignity and without any external interference.
The tree, 6 m in diameter, was erected in the yard of the Church of Our Lady. A model of the Grotto of the Nativity, made up of brown stones and covered with rock-like papers, was built up near the tree.
A similar gesture made to stress national unity was held in al-Nabk city in Damascus Countryside where a Christmas tree was lit up in an event attended by a number of Muslim and Christian clergymen, celebrating the coinciding occasions of Christmas and Prophet Mohammad’s birthday.
Reem/H. Said
