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Beirut Poshes Up for the Holidays

Christmas decorations in Beirut | Photo: Reuters
Christmas decorations in Beirut | Photo: Reuters
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Beirut Poshes Up for the Holidays

Christmas decorations in Beirut | Photo: Reuters
Christmas decorations in Beirut | Photo: Reuters

Once again, Beirut rises from the rubble and wipes off the dust from one of the most devastating attacks it has ever seen. Today, after the August 4 explosion that struck at the heart of the capital and suspended its pulse for days, Beirut, clinging to hope, tries to avoid missing out on the holiday season, with Christmas and New Year’s Eve fast approaching. It is determined to walk on and take off the clothes of sadness imposed by the catastrophe to posh up and take the appearance it typically does; that of a city of joy and color.

Beirut’s streets, alleys, squares, and streets have been illuminated by Christmas lights. Shops in the center of the capital spread set up decorations along the main road and on their branches. The streets of Mar Mikhael and Gemmayzeh have also worn the festive attire and are preparing for the rival of Christmas markets, the Beirut Chant concerts, and several environmental and social activities, thanks to the efforts of its people, residents, and individual initiatives.

On December 18, the Christmas activities under the title Solidarity Christmas Village will launch in Mar Mikhael. From the wounded heart of Beirut, the festive program will be inaugurated with a free concert performed by the graduates and students of the Holy Spirit University of Kasslik and includes daily activities from five in the afternoon until ten at night running until the 23rd of this month. Like other organizers of festive events in Beirut, the parties behind the initiative called on attendees to wear face masks and respect social distancing measures.

The 'In Action Events' organized Christmas Fair on Mar Nicolas Street in the Tabaris neighborhood in Ashrafieh launched its seventh edition in December. The program includes music, games, food and drinks.

A huge Christmas tree was set up in Sassine Square as part of the 'Christmas Village' in a tribute to the victims of the Beirut bombing. The names of the martyrs of the August 4 explosion are engraved on a wooden plaque placed next to it. A recreational space brimming adults and children, buying Ghazl al-Banat (an Arab sweet similar to cotton candy) and kunafa with cheese and sesame, and carrying colorful balloons as they explore the Christmas Village and the various activities organized for the occasion. Sassine will host Christmas activities until the end of the month.

For their part, commercial centers have chosen to decorate their spaces, each according to his own style. Because of the economic crisis that hit them hard on the one hand, and the lockdowns on the other they chose to re-use last year's. decorations. ABC shopping mall franchise decorated its three branches (Ashrafieh, Dbayeh, and Verdun) with his Christmas paintings, and a festively decorated large golden Christmas tree was erected in the middle of the City Center shopping center in Hazmieh.

Municipalities in Beirut and elsewhere, similarly financially strained, also reused last year’s decorations. Neither they nor any commercial institutions, local associations, or banks have the luxury to spend money on decorating, thus leaving places like Jbeil, whose Christmas trees had been lauded as the most beautiful for years, without a festive atmosphere.

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Varieties

Centuries-old Japanese Art of Ikebana Draws Those Seeking Calm

This photo released by Hiroyuki Okada shows a free-style Ikenobo ikebana arrangement in Tokyo on March 11, 2026. (Hiroyuki Okada via AP)
This photo released by Hiroyuki Okada shows a free-style Ikenobo ikebana arrangement in Tokyo on March 11, 2026. (Hiroyuki Okada via AP)
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Centuries-old Japanese Art of Ikebana Draws Those Seeking Calm

This photo released by Hiroyuki Okada shows a free-style Ikenobo ikebana arrangement in Tokyo on March 11, 2026. (Hiroyuki Okada via AP)
This photo released by Hiroyuki Okada shows a free-style Ikenobo ikebana arrangement in Tokyo on March 11, 2026. (Hiroyuki Okada via AP)

Ikebana, the Japanese art of arranging flowers, is a form of expression that dates back more than 500 years. It continues to blossom, quietly, not only with traditionalists but also with newcomers who find its blend of creativity and mindfulness to be restorative.

Ikebana can be a bit like solving a puzzle, except there’s no fixed answer. Because each flower, and human individual, is different, there are multiple solutions.

“There’s a ‘detox’ purifying factor, and a healing,” says Hiroyuki Okada, 40, who began taking lessons in ikebana about seven years ago. He now teaches Ikenobo, the oldest of three major ikebana schools, The Associated Press reported.

Ikenobo headmaster designate Senko Ikenobo speaks during an interview in Tokyo, on July 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Mayuko Ono)

Okada, who also teaches backflips to anyone who wants to learn, usually wears silver chains and jeans, but he wears a nice kimono when he formally demonstrates his arrangements. He considers himself typical of those drawn to ikebana today, people looking for joy, purpose, or solace from the daily grind or pain of modern life.

“In arranging (flowers), you are dealing with the life that is there, the beauty, of course, but you find what’s in your heart,” said Okada. “You come face to face with yourself.”

The Kyoto-based Ikenobo school, which is rooted in Buddhism, now has chapters around the world.

Okada's previous job at a nonprofit involved talking to people from around the world, and he realized how different — and alike — people were. When he switched to his current job, at a flower shop, he decided to take up a pursuit that was Japanese, so he could explore that aspect of himself, and one that could be done for a long time, alone.

Ikenobo ikebana instructor Hiroyuki Okada demonstrates a basic flower arrangement style called “Shoka Shofutai” at a studio in Tokyo on Aug. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)

Observing how flowers and plants grow is part of the art Ikebana involves interacting with nature, although on a small scale — usually in a little vase.

“It is about the relationship of the creator with the flowers,” said Senko Ikenobo, headmaster-designate of the Ikenobo school.

Her family dates back generations to the originators of the art. Her father is the current headmaster.

Jeannette Haviland-Jones, professor of social psychology at Rutgers University, says studies have shown “that flowers and even flower scents promote happiness in people. We suggested a coevolutionary theory for this in which flowers became the ‘pets’ of the plant world.”

Besides a flower's beauty and fragrance, the feel of its petals and leaves to the touch is crucial, like petting a kitten or a puppy, according to Okada.

There are toddlers who do Ikenobo, copying their moms, and there are devoted centenarians. The headmaster-designate says she has seen ikebana help women who are juggling work and motherhood, or taking care of aging parents.

Ikebana has a healing effect similar to that of yoga, meditation or play, says Mayu Shimizu, who works for an online educational service and has been taking lessons from Okada for about three years.

“I like this moment of nothingness when you are concentrating on the flowers before you,” she says. “My mind feels clearer. I feel more at peace, and gentle.”

This photo released by Hiroyuki Okada shows a free-style Ikenobo ikebana arrangement in Tokyo on March 11, 2026. (Hiroyuki Okada via AP)

One traditional Ikenobo arrangement is shoka shofutai, which attempts to arrange the flowers, leaves and branches as they might look in nature, reaching toward sunlight or bending in the wind. The vase, sometimes crafted from wood or pottery, also becomes part of the arrangement's vision.

Yet the overall look is pure and simple, expressing the life cycle of flowers — from blossoming through withering — through three main elements:

— Shin, the tallest element, is arranged first, representing one's core, reaching up toward the sky.

— Soe, which is trimmed to about two-thirds the height of the shin and is placed at the side, expresses the flower’s individuality. The leaves might be slightly faded, representing the later stages of life.

— Tai, the third element, is the future. Choose a blossom or fresh small leaves — things that are being born.

There are also freer, spinoff styles that look more like casual, Western-style bouquets than the stoic, textbook-oriented shoka shofutai. That may feel easier, and more fun, for beginners.

Just as ikebana connects a person with flowers, those who practice the art say it’s also about the passing of the art over generations, connecting people.

Varieties

In First, French Presidential Candidate Gives Birth During Campaign

Marine Tondelier, National Secretary of Les Ecologistes (the Ecologists - EELV - French Green Party) party arrives for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron about the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine and their consequences for France's security and energy supplies, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, September 18, 2026. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
Marine Tondelier, National Secretary of Les Ecologistes (the Ecologists - EELV - French Green Party) party arrives for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron about the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine and their consequences for France's security and energy supplies, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, September 18, 2026. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
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In First, French Presidential Candidate Gives Birth During Campaign

Marine Tondelier, National Secretary of Les Ecologistes (the Ecologists - EELV - French Green Party) party arrives for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron about the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine and their consequences for France's security and energy supplies, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, September 18, 2026. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
Marine Tondelier, National Secretary of Les Ecologistes (the Ecologists - EELV - French Green Party) party arrives for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron about the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine and their consequences for France's security and energy supplies, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, September 18, 2026. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier

French Greens leader and candidate in the 2027 presidential election Marine Tondelier said Wednesday she had given birth to a son, emphasizing that she would press on campaigning while prioritizing the health of her child.

Tondelier, 40, was the first candidate in French politics to campaign while pregnant and, while acknowledging the challenges, she had expressed hope it would push issues including infertility and motherhood up the agenda.

Her boy Leon was born in Lens in northern France on September 18, Tondelier told AFP, saying the family had kept the news private for a few days.

He was born hours after Tondelier as Greens chief had attended a rare meeting at the Elysee Palace where President Emmanuel Macron had warned France's political leaders over the risk of Russian hybrid attacks.

She told AFP that the birth had gone "very well," adding that she would be "working differently" for a while and "trying to figure out how to balance a presidential campaign with a newborn, whose health and well-being come first."

Already the mother of a 7-year-old boy, Tondelier was confirmed as the candidate for the Greens on Monday. In December, the party will decide whether to maintain her candidacy or withdraw and throw the party's weight behind another left-wing figure.

Polls currently show Tondelier, who has the slogan "another Marine is possible!" in reference to far-right frontrunner Marine Le Pen, lagging well under five percent in the first round of voting.

Varieties

Voting Opens in Alaska's Annual Fat Bear Week

A brown bear eats his catch while fishing for salmon in Brooks Falls, Alaska on August 12, 2023. (Photo by JOHN MOORE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
A brown bear eats his catch while fishing for salmon in Brooks Falls, Alaska on August 12, 2023. (Photo by JOHN MOORE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
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Voting Opens in Alaska's Annual Fat Bear Week

A brown bear eats his catch while fishing for salmon in Brooks Falls, Alaska on August 12, 2023. (Photo by JOHN MOORE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
A brown bear eats his catch while fishing for salmon in Brooks Falls, Alaska on August 12, 2023. (Photo by JOHN MOORE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

Polls opened Tuesday in the only American election that really matters: Fat Bear Week.

While the United States might be gearing up for midterm ballots that will decide who runs Washington, hundreds of thousands of people were readying to vote on animals gorging themselves in rural Alaska.

In a contest that has rapidly become one of the internet's favorite moments, the brown bears of Katmai National Park unwittingly compete in a series of head-to-head contests to see which one of them has most impressively piled on the pounds ahead of hibernation.

Viewers can watch a livestream of the enormous animals as they scoop salmon from the Brooks River, or browse biographies of some of the top contenders, including before-and-after pictures showing how much weight the bears have gained over a summer of feasting.

"For each match-up, vote for the bear you believe best exemplifies fatness and success in brown bears," said organizers, according to AFP.

"The bear with the most votes advances to the next round. Only one will be crowned Fat Bear Week champion."

Last year's winner, Chunk, beat out a stiff challenge from two-time winner Grazer.

Summer and early autumn are key fueling periods for the brown bears, which will not eat for five months of hibernation, relying on their store of fat to survive the punishing Alaskan winter.

The online contest began in 2014 with just a few thousand people voting, but has now turned into an eagerly awaited exercise in tongue-in-cheek democracy with more than a million people voting every year.

The aim is to raise awareness of brown bears and their habitat in Alaska, and the risks they face from human activity.