Christmas Eve around the world, travel woes, Santas having fun | Dec. 24
The day in photos around the world.
- Christian worshipers hold candles as they attend a Christmas Eve mass at Hati Kudus church in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Aceh is the only province to implement Sharia law in Indonesia. Christmas is a national holiday in Indonesia, despite only eight percent of the population identifying as Christian. Aceh was the worst hit location, being the closest major city to the epicenter of the 9.1 magnitude earthquake, suffering a huge hit from the resulting tsunami that caused around 130,000 deaths. Throughout the affected region of eleven countries, nearly 230,000 people were killed, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. (Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)
- Pope Francis leaves with the unveiled baby Jesus after the Christmas Eve mass at St Peter’s Basilica to mark the nativity of Jesus Christ at the Vatican. (Alberto Pizzoli/Getty Images)
- Young Chinese worshippers attend the Christmas Eve mass at a Catholic church in Beijing as Christians around the world prepare to celebrate the holy day. (Fred Dufour/Getty Images)
- U.S. troops from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) light candles during Christmas Eve celebrations at Bagram Airfield, north of Kabul. (Mohammad Ismail, Reuters photo)
- Butchers sell their remaining produce of the year at discount price during the Christmas Eve auction at Smithfield Market in central London. (Neil Hall, Reuters photo)
- A volunteer makes her way through bags with toys during the annual gift-giving event organised by firefighters in Ciudad Juarez. The firefighters from Ciudad Juarez collect donated toys throughout the year for Christmas and hand them out to poor children on Christmas eve. (Jose Luis Gonzalez, Reuters photo)
- An Iraqi Christian boy, who fled the violence in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, poses for a photo wearing a Father Christmas hat in the grounds of Mar Elia Chaldean Catholic Church, where many displaced Christians have erected tents, in Arbil, the capital of the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq. For many faithful across the region, the Christmas festivities will be tinged with sadness following a year of bloodshed marked by a surge in the persecution of Christians that has drawn international condemnation. (Safin Hamed/Getty Images)
- Window cleaners dressed as Santa Claus and a reindeer pose for pictures during an event to celebrate Christmas at a shopping mall in Tokyo. (Yuya Shino, Reuters photo)
- Women in Santa Claus-themed bikinis ski at a ski resort in Xuchang, central China’s Henan province. Ten women wore Santa Claus-themed bikinis to welcome the coming Christmas in temperatures below zero Celsius. (Getty Images)
- The water-skiing Santa and a Reindeer are seen along the Potomac River off Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, not far from Washington, DC. during the annual water-skiing Santa event. (Paul J. Richards/Getty Images)
- Surfers don Santa outfits during the Surfing Santas of Cocoa Beach fundraiser in Cocoa Beach, Fla. Hundreds dressed in costume and braved the chilly surf for the event, now in its sixth year. Proceeds support the Cocoa Beach Surf Museum and Grind for Life, a local charity that assists cancer patients. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
- Frosty the Snowman navigates up the Potomac River in a dinghy off Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. (Paul J. Richards/Getty Images)
- A man wearing a Santa Claus costume waves from his sleigh as he is carried over the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris. (Kenzo Tribouillard/Getty Images)
- Indian commuters make their way in dense fog, over a railroad crossing in Amritsar. Heavy fog has disrupted road, rail and air traffic across northern India. (Narinder Nanu/Getty Images)
- A Pakistani Sufi stands on a foggy street in Lahore. The ongoing spell of dense fog and freezing weather conditions has continued to disturb the scheduled arrival and departure of flights and trains in Pakistan’s Punjab province. (Arif Ali/Getty Images)
- Commuters wait for trains at Waterloo Station in London, England. Although London buses run 24 hours a day throughout the festive period, trains finish running at around 9pm on Christmas Eve throughout the country. Travellers may face delays and cancellations due to engineering work on some of the country’s main lines over Christmas. Network Rail reports upgrades are part of a record-breaking £200m investment programme that will begin after the last train runs on Christmas Eve. (Carl Court/Getty Images)
- Demonstrators form a line to temporarily stop traffic at the intersection of Market and Octavia Streets during a peaceful protest against police violence organized by the San Francisco LGBT Community Center in San Francisco, California. An 18-year old black teen was fatally shot by police at a gas station late on Tuesday in a St. Louis suburb near where unarmed teen Michael Brown was killed by a white officer in August. (Stephen Lam/Reuters photo)
- A security guard gestures at a protester outside a building taken over by squatters from a group calling themselves ‘Love Activists’ on December 24, 2014 in London, England. Previously leased by the Royal Bank of Scotland group, the squatters plan to open the building on Christmas Day and provide a free lunch for homeless people in a protest against the housing crisis. (Carl Court/Getty Images)
- A young Indian villager uses a cycle to carry his belongings while fleeing from the village of Tenganala in Sonitpur District after relatives were killed by militants. Violence in the restive Indian state of Assam has killed 68 people including 12 children, authorities said, as separatist rebels dramatically intensified a long-running campaign in the tea-growing area. Heavily armed militants launched a series of coordinated attacks in rural Assam late December 22, pulling villagers from their homes and shooting them at point-blank range, witnesses said. (Strdel/Getty Images)
- U.S. soldiers from the 3rd Cavalry Regiment fire a 120mm mortar during an exercise on forward operating base Gamberi in the Laghman province of Afghanistan. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters photo)
- Afghan children play football in a field in a village on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif. Football is a popular sport in the war-torn country, with the Afghan national football team winning last years South Asian Football Federation Cup. (Farshad Usyan/Getty Images)