Ambassador Schlagheck says purpose is to share joy, bring
communities together
Zubair Qureshi
Embassy of Germany as part of its past traditions, organized on Saturday, Christmas Market or ‘Christmas Bazaar’ at the embassy’s premises to celebrate the month of festivities and blessings.
One could see people belonging to different faiths and hailing from various nationalities, mostly diplomats and their families heading towards the German embassy to buy some Christmas gift for their dear ones or to have a taste of the German food. Various stalls were placed to offer different items of daily use like souvenirs, garments, gifts, decoration items, handmade shawls and traditional German and Pakistani items on discounted rates.
Stalls offering German burgers and coffee also pulled crowds. One could see little kids making a queue at the “Face Painting” stall. Similarly, Pakistan’s northern areas’ traditional jackets, caps were also sold like hot cake. Students of St Mary Lalazar Rawalpindi were specially invited to the Embassy of Germany on this occasion. Wearing Santa Claus hats the little girls sang Christmas songs and won appreciation of the visitors.
Ambassador of Germany Bernhard Schlagheck while speaking to media briefly on the occasion said Christmas Market is an annual feature of the German embassy and each year the number of visitors is larger than the previous times.
Christmas, he said, served to build friendship among the communities and give a message of peace.
“We may be from different faiths, cultures but our aim should be to contribute to society,” said the ambassador. Spirit of Christmas he said relates with the joint destiny of Mankind that is peace, prosperity and empowerment of marginalized communities, said the ambassador.
To a question about the challenges being faced by Pakistan and their solution, he said he was not there to give any advice yet he would like to say that the world is facing common challenges of global warming, poverty, lack of opportunities, etc and together we can face them by making joint efforts.
