For the first time since the fire in 2019, Notre-Dame de Paris is celebrating Christmas again on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the traditional Nativity Masses expected to attract thousands of worshippers.
‘We are now back at Notre-Dame, which has just been opened to worship and visitors. Our hearts are in celebration,’ said the archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, in a Christmas message broadcast on Tuesday.
He paid tribute to the ‘talents deployed on the restoration site’, which had enabled ‘the pain of the fire and the five years of separation to be erased, leaving only the joy of reunion, the joy of once again living together in this common home, the house of God’.
The cathedral was devastated by fire on 15 April 2019, and since then has not hosted the Nativity Masses that Christians hold to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
For the first Christmas under the restored vaults of this 860-year-old masterpiece of Gothic art, several Masses will be held on Tuesday from 15:00 GMT.
After a musical vigil at 22:00 GMT with the Notre-Dame choir, the traditional Midnight Mass will begin at midnight, presided over by Mgr Ulrich.
On Wednesday, Christmas Day, the archbishop of Paris will preside at mass at 10:00 GMT. Two other services are planned, in the morning and in the evening.
How can you attend? ‘No reservations are possible for Christmas Masses’ and access to the cathedral will be “subject to availability”, says the Diocese of Paris.
The Notre-Dame website therefore recommends arriving 30 minutes before the time of the celebrations, ‘bearing in mind that queues may be long, with a risk of not being able to access the cathedral’.
Access to the cathedral is still subject to a strict capacity of 2,700 people, despite the fact that there is still a great deal of interest in the building, which was glorified by the author Victor Hugo and has been celebrated in various films, novels and musicals.
After five years of colossal works, on a site costing almost 700 million euros, Notre-Dame de Paris reopened at the beginning of December, with a ceremony on the 7th of this month in the presence of several celebrities, including US President-elect Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, broadcast on mondovision.
Since then, the (free) ticket office has been packed, although it is still possible to turn up without a reservation and queue up to try and get in.
‘This time of Christmas is a time to express charity and generosity’, but also “the hope that God will not abandon us”, Laurent Ulrich stressed in a radio interview on Sunday, at the end of a year 2024 filled with situations “that worry us all, that darken the horizon, that for many do not allow us to live serenely”.
‘We are well aware of the difficulty and complexity in which we live’, he added, highlighting in particular the “inextricable, difficult” political situation, the “extremely dramatic” situation in the French archipelago of Mayotte, hit by cyclone Chido in December, not forgetting “Palestine, Lebanon, and many other countries that are in chaos, Ukraine...”.
For Catholics, this Christmas also marks the start of the Jubilee, the Catholic Church's ‘Holy Year’ 2025, which will be launched on Tuesday evening by Pope Francis from the Vatican. This major international pilgrimage, organised every 25 years, is expected to attract more than 30 million faithful to Rome.
With AFP.
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