No Joy in Baghdad This Christmas

[Clara T]

An Iraqi Christian woman lights candles while a man prays during Christmas Eve communion at the Virgin Mary Catholic Church in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2005. Baghdad's tiny Christian community celebrated a somber Christmas Eve, with a few dozen Catholics holding mass in the early afternoon to avoid traveling after dark, one of the most dangerous times in the Iraqi capital. An 11 p.m. curfew also bans all traffic. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

December 23, 2005

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The biggest celebration of the year for Christians is only a day away, yet the Virgin Mary Church in Baghdad wears a deserted, almost forlorn look.
The festive lights and glittery decorations of years past are nowhere to be seen.

A small, unshapely tree with silver and purple ornaments stands near the pulpit -- a poor substitute for a traditional giant Christmas tree that, in years past, was decorated to the sounds of young men and women singing hymns.

Just six women came to evening prayers a few days ahead of Christmas, leaving rows of pews empty in the dimly lit church. It wasn't always this way.

"We used to celebrate this occasion by praying, and hundreds of believers would gather and wish each other well in the church lobby," said Father Boutros Haddad, the priest at the church in Baghdad's predominantly Christian neighborhood. "But we've stopped this because of the security situation."

<snip>

Gone is all sense of joy.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticleSearch.aspx?storyID=144389+23-Dec-2005+RTRS&srch=fear+joy+baghdad

[flordehinojos]

1. i think there is a sense of lack of joy through the world...and the

extinguisher of that joy is one man named george w. bush. i accuse him of being a joy usurper, a taker of life, a taker of peace, a liar and a cheat, and i could go on but i won't and pray that i won't give myself asthma from holding in all the things that i want to say about him.