Peace Child - Friedenslichtkind
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2024 - Nine year-old Matthias Secklehner with ORF Peace Light and with the Peace Light Organisers.
"Peace Child"
"The Peace Child" or "Friedenslichkind" - Each year, a child from Upper Austria is picked to travel to the Holy Land to collect the Peace Light from the Nativity Grotto in Bethlehem. The Peace Light is then flown back to Vienna for distribution at a Service of Dedication attended by Scout and Guide delegations from across Europe. From there the Scouts and Guides from across Europe collect the Light, with it's message of Peace and take it back to their own countries and communities passing on the Light on to others along the way. In addition the Light is flown America and Canada for distrubtion across those countries.
The ORF Light of Peace will be shared again by millions of people across the world this Christmas. Peace Child Matthias Secklehner, aged 9, who comes from Gschwandt has collected the flame from the Scouts, which originally came from the Nativity Grotto in Bethlehem last year. Due to the current situation in the Middle East, the usual lighting of the light in the birthplace of Christ was not possible this year. However, believers worldwide do not have to do without the custom, which originated in Upper Austria. This year's light had already been lit in 2023 by twelve-year-old Pillar Jarayseh in theGrotto of the Nativity and brought by plane to Vienna, where the scouts have kept it ever since, as their PeaceLight Commissioner Lisa Prior confirms:"The topic of peace is so present with us all year round that, as one of the largest peace movements in the world, we deliberately guard the Light of Peace all year round. In churches, scout homes and with private individuals. It reminds us all year round to do our best for peace".Nine-year-old Matthias has now received the light at a small celebration in the Christkindl Pilgrimage Church near Steyr - a town twined with Bethlehem. The elementary school student from Gschwandt near Gmunden had given first aid to an injured hiker andis considered very helpful. "For me, Peace means that there is no fear and no arguments, and we help each other and get along well with each other," says the Peace Child 2024.