Advent bazaar

Advent bazaar at St.
Francis Street

Advent has started. Churches all over have their Advent wreathes and the first candle has been lit yesterday. Let's hope this season will be peaceful and our christians stay safe from the terrorist warnings of massacre ... it happens every year toward Christmas that the islamic terrorists kill christians.

Despite the poor economy, our parish Advent bazaar took place along St. Francis street. It was quite crowded although I don't see people buying anything. And you know the economy is bad when almost half the stalls are runned by muslims. I mentioned this to a couple of our parish youths hanging at the entrance of the Catholic Scouts club and they laughed and said "Christmas is a time to share joy even with muslims". I guess there's some truth in that.

The usual Christmas kickbacks were visibly advent in the bazaar. Rather there were more food stalls and palestinian heritage handicraft. The stall selling Nutella crepe is definitely making the most sales. But the one I like best are the doughnuts and eclairs sold by George. Further down the bazaar are stalls selling locally made handbags, bedouin embroidered clothes and pottery. All in all it was fun and it's a necessary digression from the dreary routine of life in the Old City as a christian. A little cheer, a reason to leave the tiny windowless hovels and come out into the streets to chat, mingle, see the lights and hear the music.

Super moon last night

And of course there was this incredible super moon hanging in the sky. It was huge and orange last night. Utterly amazing. It made the Advent atmosphere a little more mysterious.

In the meantime the weekend saw one of the largest demonstrations in Tel Aviv. It's called the March of Shame and it targeted the Prime Minister who's under investigation for corruption and the govt.'s trying to rush a bill to make the PM immune to indictment. Well the immunity bill is definitely  horror to any democracy ... but israeli politicians are well known survivors. https://www.timesofisrael.com/thousands-turn-out-in-tel-aviv-for-anti-corruption-march-of-shame/

Strangely we have a report that tourism next year will be such a room there is a shortage of rooms in hotels and many groups are forced to cancel. I find that hard to believe. It smells of fake news. But no rooms in the inn is not anything special here in the Holy Land ..... it happened 2000 years ago as well.   http://www.janglo.net/index.php?option=com_adsmanager&page=display&catid=99&tid=433491&utm_content=buffere5057&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer