Festival of Light, in June

After two days of ancient relics, we were ready for a splash of contemporary life. Though it was the middle of June, Jerusalem was putting on a Festival of Light. Throughout the Old City and its surroundings, modern light sculptures and exhibits brought a brilliant, sometimes psychedelic exuberance to old stone walls.

First, we went to the light show, which aimed to tell the story of light in 90 minutes, from historic times to today. Though it was completely in Hebrew, we did get several laughs as it switched from one set of outlandish costumes to the next. They managed to work into the context of the show space for an acrobatic trapeze duo, a mad scientist sketch, a blue man group parody, and a show-stopping finale, among other scenes.

After the show, a quick stroll through some of the Old City brought forth some of the smaller exhibits. Some green covered poles were illuminated to look like tall swaying strands of grass.

Elsewhere, a bell tower had swaying bell images projected on it and a large robot-like statue had a very large heart.

The whole evening was an unexpected peak into some of the life of today of this city.