{"id":64782,"date":"2015-12-24T11:49:49","date_gmt":"2015-12-24T09:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sana.sy\/en\/?p=64782"},"modified":"2015-12-24T11:49:49","modified_gmt":"2015-12-24T09:49:49","slug":"christmas-trees-lit-up-in-tartous-and-damascus-countryside-amidst-religious-and-popular-participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/?p=64782","title":{"rendered":"Christmas trees lit up in Tartous and Damascus Countryside amidst religious and popular participation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n