December rain and two million lights...

It’s the run-up to Christmas that makes it special. The anticipation, the preparation, the false smiles of shopkeepers and the bogus bon-homie from the usually sour-faced public. So it was with great excitement that I scurried into town on St Mikołaj’s Day to witness at first hand the switching on of the lights on the largest tree in Europe. A similar tree stands in Lisbon but Warsaw got there first and so, has the edge.

I arrived in front of the Palace of Culture at 6pm prompt. The rain was blustery and the wind was popping umbrellas inside-out by the dozen. The tree, dwarfed by the Palace – its own lights blinking, the clock blanketed by mist – was dark and insignificant in comparison. A sizeable crowd had gathered and at exactly four minutes past six an announcement that the switch-on would be three more minutes was met by a small groan. Five minutes later, the MC said it would be another two minutes. A louder groan. Just before 6.15 a further message warned of more delays. This time the groan was loud enough to prompt the organizers to start the countdown. The crowd stirred. Ten, nine, eight. The wind blew. Five, four. A child screamed. Two. One. Nothing. Deathly silence. Then, in a heart attack-inducing volley, rockets exploded in the sky, heavenly music blared forth from loudspeakers and the lights came on. All of them. At once. No build-up, no gradual glow: from darkness to light in a split second. A few more fireworks, then silence. Gradually people drifted away; to the Metro, the buses, home. The spectacle witnessed and then left to memory for another year.

Behind the tree, the Palace grinned wickedly, knowing that when the tree came down in January, it would still be there, its brick tower defiant on the skyline. The tree twinkled and pulsed, the lights glowing brightly in the evening gloom. I stood and wondered if the bulbs were in series. If one went, would someone have to come and check all two million? I untangled my umbrella from a flicking branch and headed home, a strange feeling inside of pre-Christmas bon-homie.

An edited version of this post appeared in the New Warsaw Express, an English language magazine for which I write a column. http://www.nwe.pl