On Saturday afternoon, Prague’s traditional Christmas tree lighting ceremony took place at the Old Town Square, with angels serving as this year’s theme.
The 22-meter (72-feet) high Christmas tree is decorated with 40 angel figures, more than 600 Christmas balls and ornaments, and about 15,000 light bulbs.
The tree lit up for the first time on Nov. 30 at 4:30 p.m., accompanied by the soundtrack of the famous Czech fairy-tale song Krkonoše Mountains composed by Vadim Petrov. However, the lighting ceremony will repeat every hour until 9:30 p.m. leading up to Jan. 6.
Preparations for the traditional festive lighting of the Christmas tree, which attracts hundreds of people, began several weeks earlier. Every year, organizers set a different theme and take care of finding the perfect Christmas tree.
“This year, we had a very difficult time finding a new theme as we have already done all topics connected to history, Prague, and the Czech Republic,” said Jakub Olbert, owner of SOS Dekorace company, which organizes the event. However, someone on the team came up with the motif of an angel, and after detailing what it would look like, the company decided to go with that motif.
The decorating of the Christmas tree and the surrounding area began last Tuesday after the tree arrived.
First, organizers installed thousands of light bulbs followed by the Christmas balls, ornaments, gingerbread men, angels, and retro ornaments. In total, 10 and a half kilometers of power cables were needed to light up the tree.
The tree, which is decorated in the traditional colors of gold, red, green, and white, will be at the Old Town Square in Prague until the end of Christmas markets on Jan. 6.
