City of Lights
Took the family to the Jerusalem light festival last night. Let me get my gripes out of the way. The first is that there were a lot more people there and it made it downright dangerous at times with herds of folks pressing both ways in cramped spaces. Second was that there were no kid friendly installations this year. I really liked having kid friendly activities the previous years. Aside from that I loved it.
The light festival is a celebration of light and color, sometimes mixed with sound, and I think it is just an amazing thing. Granted my father was an electrician with a thing for flashlights(he collected them, seriously) so from a young age I had a love for all things light up. I have also always loved the Old City of Jerusalem, so when you put the two together, it’s really great.
The light festival mixes the magic, wonder and mystery of the Old City with the magic wonder and mystery of visual and optical illusion of light. It is truly a wondrous experience. If you are in town, and don’t mind being jostled and pressed from time to time, you should head over and check it out. It’s free(mostly there are a couple of paid entrance installations) and there is a really great time to be had.
As my wife and I jostled our way through the Armenian quarter I noted the lack of crowd control and how easy it is for this to result in unfortunate injuries or worse.