Candles on all war graves at the Airborne Cemetery in Oosterbeek are lit!

Earlier this month, the foundation Candlelights On War Graves Oosterbeek in The Netherlands announced that the event for lighting candlelights on the graves in Oosterbeek at Christmas Eve could not take place .

Due to corona, of course. Yet this Christmas Eve at the Airborne cemetery all graves are in a soft candlelight and that until Boxing Day.

No permission

"In consultation with the municipality of Renkum, we had to cancel the event. With corona, the increasing infections and hospital admissions we had to make the decision at a certain point. However, the municipality of Renkum allowed us to place the candles with only us and our direct family, but not to publicise anything about it. " Alice sighs: "That was quite annoying."

"Felt a bit like cheating everyone." Devi agrees "But we couldn't take the risk that people would come anyway. We talked about closing the cemetery so we could light the candles, but then it would be an event again and organising events is just not allowed at the moment. So neither are we."

Still, it became exciting when the Netherlands entered the lockdown. The foundation has been anxiously waiting for a phone call from the municipality that they were not allowed to light the candles. "Bu when the municipality called, they said that our Mayor Agnes Schaap had every confidence in us and we would bring the lighting to a success! We were so happy!" Anita laughs

Without donations this year

"And the best thing is," Alex says "That so much has been donated in previous years that we have been able to do this because of all those donations!"

The foundation has thinned out a bit over the past year and it wasn't a nice year for anyone, but these four did not care about that and thanks to their family members, who helped so hard today, the third Lights on War Graves is again brought to a success!

Look for the most beautiful photos on the Facebook page of the foundation , they can also be viewed without Facebook, just like the video below.