Best of Jerusalem Light Festival

The Festival of Light in Jerusalem 2016

was one of the best photo ops of the year.

However, the biggest problem as always,

 how to get down to a reasonable number of photos to share.

For the eighth year,  the Old City streets

were illuminated with lights,

with works of international artists

Jerusalem light festival Christian Information center

projected on to buildings, like

Jerusalem light festival Prince of lights

these two scenes on the Christian Information Center.

The week long, nighttime festival

began on May 25th, Lag B’Omer.

tower of david party lag b'omer

A sparkling wine reception near the Tower of David

treated invited guests

roasting marshmellows unusual Lag B'Omer treat

to food and roasted marshmallows.

As night fell,

Jerusalem light festival

Italian Colored Origami covered

the Armenian Patriarchate Street,

where a bit further visitors encountered,

the Illuminated Orchestra,

Jerusalem light festival people in light costumes

live musicians were lit up.

In the Old City,

Lag B'Omer girls carrying wood for bonfire

girls were still collecting firewood for their

Lag B’Omer medurot, bonfires.

While in the Cardo,  the Hebrew names of the ten sefirot, 

Jerusalem light festival Cardo

the kabbalistic term for God’s emanations,

were linked in a pattern

called the Tree of Life.

In the covered Cardo,

Jerusalem light festival Cardo Crystallized

viewers were attracted by the French Crystallized, 

shaped as a bismuth crystal.

As with all the Jerusalem Old City festivals,

I love to follow the colored lights

out of the Jewish Quarter

Jerusalem light festival old city Arab shuk night

and along those streets I usually avoid.

Jerusalem light festival old city ARab market at night shuk

The streets of the Arab markets even shuttered at night

are fascinating and photo worthy.

For the first time at a night festival,

I did not get lost in Muristan Square,

and end up wandering through the Muslim Quarter.

Instead, I found the popular

Jerusalem light festival Muristan Square Lampshades

 Lamps of Muristan,

Jerusalem light festival

Spin, 

Jerusalem light festival green marvelous

and French Green Marvelous Opulence.

Green plastic shopping bags folded to look like veggies,

was a stop-and-think-about-it piece of art.

Tens of thousands of people attended the nights of the festival.

On the Olive Tree Lawn,

what looked like a giant Lag B’Omer medura, bonfire,

Jerusalem light festival firs large fire tornado

was the Large Fire Tornado.

From the Netherlands,

this huge fire was fueled by 36 industrial fans.

Jerusalem light festival Jaffa Square

Thousands of videos were taken of the

main attraction at the Jaffa Gate, festival starting point,

color and movement of Water Fountains.

Designed by Latvian artists, every ten minutes

the spectacular show repeated itself.

At the Damascus Gate,

Jerusalem light festival Damascus Gate

Globoscope Stories of Damascus Gate 

required a video again.

But there were new sights this year.

Jerusalem light festival Old Post office on Jaffa Road

At the historic Central Post Office building, Do’Ar Na,

was lit to look like the iconic old British post boxes.

The interactive music of spectators across Jaffa Road

banging on old mail boxes that made this presentation unique.

Jerusalem light festival Eiffel tower on Jaffa Street

Oh, and that Eiffel Tower mentioned last week

near the Generali Building

was for the Jerusalem Light Festival,

not the Prime Minister of France.

Not everyone reached the end of the pink route,

Jerusalem light festival FOZ building Love Jerusalem

but the projection Love Jerusalem

on the new FOZ building was a winner.

For me, doing most of the five routes

Jerusalem light festival instagram pic with Miriam Lottner

with a friend and not alone was new and great fun.

30 stops on 5 colored routes,

going back more than once,

these were some of my favorites.

Every year is different

and each year I seem to need more videos.

Check out:

Water Fountains, with Mayor Nir Barkat speaking at opening event.

Globoscope Damascus Gate

Urban Poetry at Batei HaMachseh Square

and my favorite video this year,

 and Love Jerusalem.

0 thoughts on “Best of Jerusalem Light Festival

Leave a Reply to Birder's Journey Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.