Christmas mood in Bergen

The trees have shed all their leaves. Those that haven't have crispy brown dry leaves that are easily blown by the wind from the branches. A few weeks ago as we walked with my  team mate to a students meeting, we saw someone lay down electric cables around a special part of the city with a small lake as well as  a park.
Well we didn't understand why so went our way.
Last saturday as i walked with my room mate in the city (shopping for winter shoes- its cold here men) we saw christmas trees almost everywhere in the big stores. The mood is that of Christmas my roommate told me and invited me to go for the Advent celebration later that evening.
I was told that this was a special event in Bergen and i wouldn't want to miss any of it. So i decided to go even though it was freezing cold. Why not, its an exotic experience altogether.

The real thing

As we get into the venue of the celebration, it dawns on me that the person we saw laying down cables weeks earlier, was actually working out the ligthing on the leaveless trees.
This was at night outside and the very many small ligths are burning torches of the people attending. I didn't have one myself-i was taking pictures

This was my first time to see so many people attending an event. It brought memories of evangelistic crusades in Kenya.



Christmas Tree

Now from the picture above you can see the reflections of the light. The reflections are coming from the frozen lake where a huge Christmas tree has been artificially planted or suspended on the lake.
well they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder but this is really beautiful irrespective of the beholder. What do you say?






In the mix

Even in the freezing cold i managed to enjoy the celebration and a friend tried to capture the moment here. Guys if you have problems identifying me in this photo, i am supposed to be between the two seen guys. I forgot to smile i didn't want to freeze my teeth. Next time i remember to smile. There were a lot of performences with christmas messsages. The music was very Christmas,the people were very Christmastic though freezing, time moved in a Chrismal fashion and may be were just breathing Christmasogen (Christmas oxygen) without realizing it.

Christmas is an important occasion in Norway. It can be seen from this event and the celebrations that accompany the season. As i talked with my Norwegian Roommate( Vegard) he told me that he only hopes that the Norwegians find it even more important the person behind the event (Jesus Christ).

Fire works

By the time the celebration was over, about an hour later i was so cold that my fingers were paining. I rushed to my room and not just anywhere but in the bathroom and turned the knob to the hottest degree. The rest was a relaxing evening after a meeting with the students group here in Bergen.