The lights of the Christmas tree of Sofia went on at exactly 18:00 PM on November 29th. The official start was preceeded by a minor blunder. Minutes before 18:00, the lights of the tree went on and the people confused the mistake with the real beginning of the celebration.

It turned out to be a technical mistake. That gave the popular Bulgarian actress Stoyanka Mutafova the opportunity to quip that “the repetition was successful, but the premiere is yet to come”.

At exactly 18:00 PM, the real countdown ended and the ligths of the tree went on, along with numerous fireworks over the center of Sofia.

The Christmas tree is in the park of the “Rila” hotel. It’s over 15 metres tall and adorned with 5 km. garlands, over 15 000 lamps and over a hundred ribbons and lanterns.