Chinese Karaoke will Ring in a Secular Christmas in Madrid
The mayor of Madrid announced plans for the city’s commemoration of the Christian holiday, including Greek dancing and Arabic food tasting, among other programming activities.
Funded by taxpayers, the city's celebration of the Christian holiday of Christmas has been transformed into a secular festival. The Puerta de Alcalá will not be lit with the image of St. Joseph, the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus in Christmas lights, which had adorned the arches of the Plaza de la Independencia for nearly a decade. Additionally, the council decided to remove one of only two outdoor nativity scenes that could be seen in the capital. The explanation for this was it that does not meet the “artistic value” requirements that they want to promote in the Christmas program this year, as reported by La Razon.
Instead, city has announced hundreds of “multicultural activities” with the participation of 40 embassies. The ceremony of the Japanese kimono, Arabic food tastings, Serbian poetry readings, and Korean cinema are the highlights of the program.