Christmas 2011 Around The World (PHOTOS)

All around the world, people are gathering to celebrate Christmas.

In Bethlehem, hundreds flock to St. Catherine's church for a mass at Jesus' traditional birthplace.

Barcelona honors the holiday with its annual Traditional Christmas Swimming Cup.

Cubans celebrate with elaborate feasts and song. The country is preparing for a March visit from Pope Benedict XVI, the first from a pontiff in over a decade.

The Philippines faces a darker Christmas than most. After floods devastated the southern region, thousands are forced to spend the holiday in emergency shelters.

In New York, Archbishop Timothy Dolan led midnight mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, with Mayor Michael Bloomberg in attendance.

Check out photos from Christmas celebrations around the world:

Comments

[Woodsie]

05:49 PM on 12/26/2011

Before I die, I would so love to spend a Christmas week in Vienna. And one in Strasbourg. And Bruges. And Paris. And York. I need a magic lamp.

[Marc464]

10:27 AM on 12/26/2011

Thank you Huff Post for having posted these pictutes of Christmas from around the world. I enjoy seeing them every year.

[whatsthatsound]

02:25 AM on 12/26/2011

Just give me the ten ladies dancing and keep all the rest. I got no use for all that stuff.

[jkenn21357]

01:55 AM on 12/26/2011

And a happy 2012 to everyone because we will get to elect a replacement for Obama.

[Daniel Farady]

02:58 AM on 12/26/2011

Oh.... Aren't you precious!! Does the hospital staff know you have access to their computers? I wouldn't want you to lose your day room privileges.

[carlgt1]

10:51 AM on 12/26/2011

Hahaha and go back to e days of Bush with war war war for Holy Jeebus?

[texliberal]

01:31 AM on 12/26/2011

Religion has been used as a wedge issue in this country since it's inception. Even by Democrats, remember DIXIECRATS. It's message is in some ways just and honorable. But it's practice just the opposite.

[DallasDon]

01:39 AM on 12/26/2011

You're right Tex, though I don't remember the Dixicrats,
unless you mean the DixieChix and they were opposed to the Iraq War.

Whenever we read the_obscen­e stories,
the _voluptuou­s_debauche­ri­es,
the_cruel and_tortur­ous_execut­ions­,
the_unrele­ntin­g_vin­dictive­ne­ss,
which fills more than half of the Bible,
it would be more consistent
that we call it the word of a
_demon than the word of God.

It is a history of_wickedn­ess that has served
to_corrupt and_brutal­ize mankind.

Only sheep need a shepard.

[texliberal]

01:48 AM on 12/26/2011

INDEED my friend

[KIVPossum]

01:55 AM on 12/26/2011

You don't remember the Dixiecrats? southern Dems who supported segregation. Most of them migrated to the GOP by the 60s.

[whatsthatsound]

01:30 AM on 12/26/2011

I saw a sign in the East. It said, "Go West, young man". So I did. To become a Star.
That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

[DallasDon]

01:33 AM on 12/26/2011

Yeah, my parents told me to always reach for the stars,
then in school I learned that
stars are massive, fiery balls of gas,
that should I actually reach one
would instantly incinerate me...

[whatsthatsound]

01:41 AM on 12/26/2011

We reach, brother.

[LittleOldLadyWho]

01:23 AM on 12/26/2011

The saying that comes to mind, and often, is "Peace on earth; goodwill to man(kind)." The thought of that has appeared as an impossibility! So, I now think of it in terms that I (personally) find as "peace" and the goodwill the I (personally) extend.

[GypsyRose]

01:29 AM on 12/26/2011

Lady, it's the hope and dream. You can't diminish that. It's in our hearts and souls. Collectively, as humans, I believe. Shalom.

[LittleOldLadyWho]

01:35 AM on 12/26/2011

And, same to you, my friend!  ;o)

[HCLiberal]

01:32 AM on 12/26/2011

That is one way to look at it. Another is to view it as an ideal that, like all ideals, can only be approached, but never reached, which is fine. It is like the concept of infinity in mathematics.

The problem is that religion, by its very nature, divides, rather than unites people and, therefore, works against that ideal.

[LittleOldLadyWho]

01:37 AM on 12/26/2011

Interesting idea!  Thanks!!  ;o)

[Elecktra001]

01:22 AM on 12/26/2011

Hey dallas.Ho ho ho. This is how we get a mo d badge on hp

[aFtersootdamP]

01:14 AM on 12/26/2011

You can count on the liberals to refuse to say Merry Christmas.

[Daniel Farady]

01:17 AM on 12/26/2011

You can count on conservatives to lie about liberals not saying Merry Christmas.

[GypsyRose]

01:30 AM on 12/26/2011

Merry Christmas, Hoop! :)

[sophie M]

01:12 PM on 12/26/2011

(i like your sense of humor)

[texliberal]

01:17 AM on 12/26/2011

Lots have been saying it here for several days.

[ginger42]

01:13 AM on 12/26/2011

How many days is HP going to have this as their headline page?

[DallasDon]

01:15 AM on 12/26/2011

It's a goddamn birth announcement!
Jesus was born on this day and don't you forget it!

[Elecktra001]

01:23 AM on 12/26/2011

Jesus was born in July, dude.

[ginger42]

01:43 AM on 12/26/2011

I can see it being there for a couple hours, but not THIS long. But I see they have now moved on to IOWA

[markgoode]

01:25 AM on 12/26/2011

Write your Congressman! It's a scandal, I tells ya, a scandal!

[ginger42]

01:44 AM on 12/26/2011

Just another reason to cut my use of HP even further

[goserenee1]

01:11 AM on 12/26/2011

To everyone around the world Happy New Year. All the health and happiness you and yours deserve!

[javajava]

01:11 AM on 12/26/2011

Thanks Christians for the holiday. Now if we could get a few more days observed from other religions and faiths, and more than a few pagan ones, and sprinkle in a couple of days for Presidents and heroic historical figures (real or imagined) and it would all be gravy.

Maybe we could get an atheists day. We wouldn't have to shop, go to church or promise to be good for goodness sake.

I really do hope all of you had a good Christmas Day.

[jackhole]

01:13 AM on 12/26/2011

I want my own holiday.

[BillLoney]

01:10 AM on 12/26/2011

It needs to be more widely understood that many more than one strain of Christianity arose from the birth of Jesus, some of which are truly radically different from the religion we commonly understand, and I don't just mean Mormonism. What concerns me most is the curious form of Calvinism that seems to permeate the thinking of the C Street crowd and others, where their wealth and success are seen as external proof of their godliness and salvation, regardless of the means taken to achieve that end. I think there's something very dangerous going on there that really diverges dramatically from mainstream and accepted intellectual thought, and requires that it be much better understood.

[ginger42]

01:11 AM on 12/26/2011

As an ex-Calvinist, I agree

[BillLoney]

01:13 AM on 12/26/2011

Feel free to chime in.

[texliberal]

01:16 AM on 12/26/2011

You can thank Oliver Cromwell

[texliberal]

01:10 AM on 12/26/2011

I've read quite a few books on early Christianity. Their communities were truly communal and shared all they had. Many were led by women and did not believe Jesus to be divine but a wise prophet. Then Christianity became a profitable BUSINESS, and there's is where my true objection lies.

[Daniel Farady]

01:18 AM on 12/26/2011

Merry Christmas my friend!

[texliberal]

01:20 AM on 12/26/2011

Same to you sir

[KIVPossum]

01:59 AM on 12/26/2011

Think it was about the 3rd century before the concept of Jesus' divinity was part of Christianity.

[whatsthatsound]

01:08 AM on 12/26/2011

I haven't got a penny. Will a ha'penny do?

[GypsyRose]

01:18 AM on 12/26/2011

Garden Delights? A very Merry to you, wts. I wonder what Graham Parker would think? ;)

[whatsthatsound]

01:20 AM on 12/26/2011

I just needed to put something in the old man's hat, and I was fresh out.
HH to you too, Gypsy, and rock on, GP!