Christmas Eve Mass - Abu Dhabi

Christmas Eve Mass at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Abu Dhabi, was held outdoors due to the huge crowd attending. There were about 10,00 people at the 8 p.m. mass. An even larger crowd was expected for the Midnight Mass.

Father Francis Jamieson gave a rare "general absolution" because many people, through no fault of their own, could not go to confession before Christmas. The main celebrant, whose name I don't know, said we should reach out to not only the poor but the lonely. Loneliness is something that everyone goes through some time, he said, and it's one of the hardest things to bare.

St. Joseph's is the only catholic church in metropolitan Abu Dhabi. It serves 100,000 parishioners. At a recent confirmation-candidates' gathering, a priest looked at the jam-packed community hall and sighed. He said the enormous number of teens at St. Joseph's is "both the church's greatest blessing and its greatest handicap." The priests here work hard to serve the catholic community well.

(In the picture above, there is a football-field-sized awning overhead; this covers the area between the rear of the church and a St. Joseph's classroom building and provides much needed shade on the many hot days in Abu Dhabi.)

It was a beautiful evening. When the Christmas Eve mass ended, thousands of people dispersed peacefully.

This picture above shows the area between the main church (on the left) and the church hall (on the right). Straight ahead is one of the St. Joseph's School classroom buildings.

Weekends in Abu Dhabi are Friday-Saturday, so our children attend catechism class on Friday mornings and then we all attend a youth mass afterwards.

It took a few minutes for the crowds to exit through the few openings in the walled-in grounds of St. Joseph's. All churches are in one area in Abu Dhabi - the catholic, protestant, and Koptic churches. In the background, on the right of this picture, is Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Mosque.

Eid Tomorrow, Christmas in a Week

Christmas is one week away. Back home in New Hampshire, U.S., there is so much snow that our mail box has been "taken out" by one too many snow plows. In Abu Dhabi, the only moisture on the ground is that from my garden hose, which is somewhat leaky.

It is nearly silent around our villa today. Many families have departed for vacation, and my younger boys are wondering what they'll do without their friends. Even the sun seems quieter, it is so much gentler recently. The temperatures brush 80 degrees during the day and the low 60s at night.

As we look forward to Christmas in a week, our Muslim friends anticipate their own important holiday, Eid Al Adha. It begins Dec. 19th (this year) and runs four days. During Eid Al Adha, Muslims pray at home or in a mosque, don their best clothes, visit the eldest family member's home for a nice meal, and give children money as gifts. This Eid comes at the end of Haj, the pilgrimmage to the holy city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia, that Muslims are supposed to try to make once during their lifetime. There are many rituals of religious significance during this pilgrimmage. The intention is to draw Muslims' to their faith and also to unify them as members of their community of worshippers.


Eid Al Adha, the "Festival of Sacrifice," commemorates Abraham's faithfulness and love for God, a love so great he was willing to sacrific his only and beloved son. (As Abraham was about to kill his son, he was told his sacrifice was accepted and his son lived. A ram was sacrificed instead.)


During the Eid, many Muslims today sacrifice an animal - usually a goat or a lamb - and share it with family and the needy. The Khaleej Times reports that approximately one million kilograms (2.2 million pounds) of meat is distributed to the poor at Haj.

My Emirati neighbors left Abu Dhabi yesterday. Their destination was London, if they could get tickets. It seems everyone wants to go to London this Eid, my neighbor said. Other friends flew to Egypt, Oman, and Australia. We know three families spending Christmas in India. Other friends travel to Florida, U.S., this evening.