PHOTOS: Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations around the world

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis in his traditional Christmas message on Wednesday urged “all people of all nations” to find courage during this Holy Year “to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions” plaguing the world, from the Middle East to Ukraine, Africa to Asia.

The pontiff’s “Urbi et Orbi” — “To the City and the World” — address serves as a summary of the woes facing the world this year. As Christmas coincided with the start of the 2025 Holy Year celebration that he dedicated to hope, Francis called for broad reconciliation, “even (with) our enemies.”

READ MORE: Palestinians in Bethlehem mark another subdued Christmas Eve during war in Gaza

“I invite every individual, and all people of all nations … to become pilgrims of hope,” the pope said from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica to throngs of people below.

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa carries a figurine inside Bethlehem’s Nativity Church Complex in the occupied West Bank, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, during Christmas midnight mass. Photo by Alaa Badarneh/ Pool/ AFP/ Getty Images

The pope invoked the Holy Door of St. Peter’s, which he opened on Christmas Eve to launch the 2025 Jubilee, as representing God’s mercy, which he said tears down walls of division and dispels hatred.

A boy deacon walks outside the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza City before Christmas Eve mass amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Photo by Omar al-Qattaa/ AFP via Getty Images

He called for arms to be silenced in war-torn Ukraine and in the Middle East, singling out Christian communities in Israel and the Palestinian territories, as well as Lebanon and Syria. Francis repeated his calls for the release of hostages taken from Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

Mohamed Aly dresses as Santa Claus and gives out sweets in Damascus after Bashar al-Assad’s ouster. His cheeks are painted with the flag adopted by Syria’s new rulers. Photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh/ Reuters

Pilgrims were lined up on Christmas Day to walk through the great Holy Door at the entrance of St. Peter’s as the Jubilee is expected to bring some 32 million Catholic faithful to Rome. Traversing the Holy Door is one way that the faithful can obtain indulgences, or forgiveness for sins during a Jubilee, a once-every-quarter-century tradition that dates from 1300.

People gather on Christmas Day at a restaurant in Damascus, Dec. 25, 2024. Photo by Khalil Ashawi/ Reuters

“You feel so humble when you go through the door, that once you go through it is almost like a release, a release of emotions,″ said Blanca Martin, a pilgrim from San Diego. “You feel like now you are able to let go and put everything in the hands of God. See, I am getting emotional. It’s just a beautiful experience.”

Pilgrims submitted to security controls, amid new safety concerns following a deadly Christmas market attack in Germany.

A Chrismukkah miracle as Hanukkah and Christmas coincide

Hanukkah, Judaism’s eight-day Festival of Lights, begins this year on Christmas Day, which has only happened four times since 1900.

Celebrating the start of Hanukkah, the U.S. National Menorah is lit during a ceremony near the White House. Photo by Micheal A. McCoy/ Reuters

The calendar confluence has inspired some religious leaders to host interfaith gatherings, such as a Hanukkah party hosted last week by several Jewish organizations in Houston, Texas, bringing together members of the city’s Latino and Jewish communities for latkes, the traditional potato pancake eaten on Hanukkah, topped with guacamole and salsa.

A Christmas market in Haifa, Israel, displays a lit up Christmas tree, Ramadan lantern and Hanukkah menorah. Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/ AFP/ Getty Images

While Hanukkah is intended as an upbeat, celebratory holiday, rabbis note that it’s taking place this year as wars rage in the Middle East and fears rise over widespread incidents of antisemitism. The holidays overlap infrequently because the Jewish calendar is based on lunar cycles and is not in sync with the Gregorian calendar, which sets Christmas on Dec. 25.

WATCH: National Menorah lights up for the first night of Hanukkah

The last time Hanukkah began on Christmas Day was in 2005.

Ukraine marks second Christmas at war

On the front lines of eastern Ukraine, soldiers spent another Christmas locked in grinding battles with Russian forces. It’s their second Christmas at war and away from home since the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022.

A military Orthodox chaplain conducts a Christmas Eve mass for service members of the 72nd Chorni Zaporozhtsi Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, at a position in a front line in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Dec. 24, 2024. Photo by Valentyn Kuzan/Press Service of the 72nd Chorni Zaporozhtsi Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via Reuters

A soldier with the call sign OREL, the Ukrainian commander of 211th battalion, said he had forgotten it was Christmas Day.

READ MORE: Russia strikes Ukrainian energy infrastructure on Christmas Day

“Honestly, I remembered about this holiday only in the evening (after) someone wrote in the group that today is a holiday,” he said. “We have no holidays, no weekends. … I don’t know, I have no feelings, everything is plain, everything is gray, and my thoughts are only about how to preserve my personnel and how to stop the enemy.”

People walk past New Year and Christmas decorations in Moscow on Dec. 25, 2024. Photo by Evgenia Novozhenina/ Reuters

Others, however, said the day brought hope that there would one day be peace. Ukrainians expect the inauguration of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump may bring about a ceasefire deal, and many soldiers who have borne the brunt of nearly three years of fighting, said they hoped that would be the case.

“On such a day, today, I’d like to wish for all of this to be over, for everyone,” said Valerie, a Ukrainian soldier in the 24th Mechanized Brigade who would only give his first name. “Of course, there is always hope, there is always hope. Everyone wants peace, everyone wants peace and to return home.”

Ukrainian wear traditional clothes as they mark Christmas Day 2024 with carol singing in Kyiv. Photo by Thomas Peter/ Reuters

White Christmas in the U.S. Northeast

Residents of New York City awoke to their first white Christmas in Central Park since 2009, according to the National Weather Service New York. The 843-acre urban park recorded a snow depth of 1 inch at 7 a.m.

Edgar Tan, 12, makes a snow angel in Central Park after the city’s first snowfall of the season, on the first day of winter in Manhattan on Dec. 21, 2024. Photo by Adam Gray/ Reuters

In Massachusetts, school children came up with names for a dozen hardworking snowplows, including “Taylor Drift,” “Control-Salt-Delete” and “It’s Snow Problem.” The Massachusetts Department of Transportation this week announced the winners of its competition to name the snowplows, which was open to elementary and middle school students. Other winning names included “Meltin’ John,” “Ice Ice Baby” and the “Abominable Plowman.”

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden spent part of Christmas Day calling each branch of the military stationed overseas to thank them for their service.

German celebrations muted by market attack

German celebrations were darkened by a car attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg on Friday that left five people dead, including a 9-year-old boy, and 200 people injured.

People stand near flowers and candles left as a tribute for the victims of the ‘Alter Markt’ Christmas market, after a man drove a car into the crowd through an emergency exit route in Magdeburg, Germany, on Dec. 23, 2024. Photo by Axel Schmidt/ Reuters

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier rewrote his recorded Christmas Day speech to address the attack, saying that “there is grief, pain, horror and incomprehension over what took place in Magdeburg.” He urged Germans to stand together and said “hate and violence must not have the last word.”

A 50-year-old Saudi doctor who had practiced medicine in Germany since 2006 was arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm. The suspect’s X account describes him as a former Muslim and is filled with anti-Islamic themes.

Some Germans participated in joyful holiday traditions despite tough times. Members of the winter and ice swimming club Seehunde Berlin, or the Berlin Seals, waded into Oranke Lake wearing Santa hats as part of their annual Christmas Day swim. Meanwhile, rabbis gathered in town to watch the set-up of a giant Hanukkah menorah in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

Displaced Christians in Gaza pray for peace

An elderly Christian couple in the Gaza Strip has marked Christmas in a squalid tent camp, separated from their families and friends.

A Christian couple, Abu Asad and his wife, displaced to the Mevasi region of Khan Yunis due to Israeli military attacks on Gaza, refrained from celebrating Christmas as they continue their lives in a makeshift tent, on Dec. 25, 2024. Photo by Ashraf Amra/ Anadolu via Getty Images

Amal Amouri and her husband, Tony Al-Masri, are members of Gaza’s tiny Christian community. While many of Gaza’s 1,000 or so Christians have sheltered in a Gaza City church throughout the war, the couple is among the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians who have fled to southern Gaza.

The tent camps in the Muwasi area barely have enough food or proper shelter. Al-Masri recently recovered from a stroke and walks with a cane.

Members of the clergy attend a mass on Christmas Eve at the Holy Family Church in Gaza City, Dec. 24, 2024. Photo by Dawoud Abu Alkas/ Reuters

Al-Masri said that before the war, his family would travel to the West Bank town of Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, to celebrate the Christmas. He said being separated from them was especially difficult.

“On days like these, I would be with my children in Bethlehem and with my grandchildren, sitting with all the family. We have been deprived of all of this,” he said. “This is the hardest thing for me. For two years I have not seen my children or grandchildren.”

His wife hung a wooden cross inside their tent, which has pictures of Christian leaders and Jesus and Virgin Mary as well as written prayers in every corner. “I only wish for peace,” she said.

Barry reported from Milan. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; Rashid Yehya in Teleskaf, Iraq; Evgeniy Maloletka in the Donetsk region, Ukraine; Nick Perry in Boston; and David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed to this report.

More photos from around the world

Britain’s King Charles, Queen Camilla, Catherine, Princess of Wales, and Princess Charlotte walk to attend the Royal Family’s Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene’s church on Dec. 25, 2024. Photo by Toby Melville/ Reuters

A Christian faithful of the Legio Maria African Mission church holds a candle at a Christmas Eve vigil in Nairobi. Photo by Thomas Mukoya/ Reuters

Migrants receive a Christmas Eve dinner at a shelter in Tapachula, Mexico, as they seek humanitarian visas to reach the United States. Photo by Damian Sanchez/ Reuters

Catholics attend a Christmas mass in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. Photo by Willy Kurniawan/ Reuters

An illuminated Christmas scene is seen in the courtyard of the Cathedral Saint Paul ahead of Christmas celebration in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Dec. 23, 2024. Photo by Luc Gnago