The Light of Bethlehem on the Holy Mountain
Bringing of the Bethlehem Light at 18.00. The following is the programme of the Příbram Scout Troops.
The light will be available in the Prague Chapel until the end of the year.
Bringing the Bethlehem Light by the Scouts
A legend from the time of the Crusades (which took place in the 10th-12th centuries), whose aim was to liberate the Holy Land from the Turkish tribes, says that a young knight vowed that if he returned home from the Crusades, he would bring to his native Florence a flame of eternal light from the of the Basilica of Bethlehem. Few returned from the Crusades, but three years later, just before Christmas 1099, this man arrived in Florence at the head of a group of impoverished young men with a lit candle. All the newcomers swore that the flame came from Bethlehem, and the knight in question protected it across the desert and the sea just to keep his promise. It was the first and last medieval flame brought from the birthplace of Christ.
The modern history of the bringing of the Bethlehem light begins in 1983, when the flame from Bethlehem was presented by the Austrian artist Ada Brandstetter, who incidentally comes from Plana near Tachov, as part of the Light in the Dark event (held annually in Linz as a collection for visually impaired children). The idea of the Bethlehem Light was then brought up by the Austrian public broadcaster ORF, which organised a Christmas collection for disabled children: one physically disabled child flew to Bethlehem to light the candle in the Basilica of the Nativity and flew it back to Linz. Then in 1988, scout leader Herbert Grünwald came up with the idea of distributing the Bethlehem light on a large scale. He was inspired by the idea of a peace light, which Ada Brandstetter had come up with five years earlier.
Taken from the eternal flame that burns in the cave beneath the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem in central Palestine, the flame is a symbol of peace, love, hope and friendship. The distribution of the light is carried out by Scouts and Girl Guides from all over the world. Since 1990, the Brno Scouts have been bringing it to the Czech Republic from Austria.