The Soldiers Had Christmas Holidays in Cyprus

Already in the spirit of Christmas, but yet on Saturday, December 3, the “Commander Santa Claus" of the Slovak-Serbian-Croatian nationality 4th Sector and his elf helpers visited all the stations of the sector, and surprised the soldiers working there with gift parcels.

On Thursday, December 15, the joint Christmas of the mission, the musical program, with the name “Christmas Carol" was staged at the Main Headquarters of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) of Nicosia, where Sector 4’s “all national" chorus had a resounding success by singing Christmas songs in the languages of the four nations.

In honour of Christmas the troops of the mission’s Hungarian Contingent assembled for dinner on Saturday, December 24 in Athienou, in the St. Stephen Camp serving as the station of the Hungarian platoon, where the cooks prepared traditional Hungarian Christmas dishes: fish soup and poppy seed cakes.

On the occasion of the festive dinner the Commander of the Contingent Lt. Col. Péter Lukács thanked the service-members for the work exerted until now, and wished happy Holidays and a Peaceful and Successful New Year.

The Christmas dinner – in view of the multinational composition of Sector 4 – was consumed at the stations of the troops of the Hungarian Contingent, i.e. in Famagusta, in Athienou, and in Nicosia.

At the Famagusta headquarters of the Sector all the soldiers of the camp took part in a common dinner, where cabbage soup, fish sticks and fried slices (Wiener schnitzel) were served up in accordance with the Slovak traditions.

The four pine trees, which arrived from Hungary, added to the splendour of the holiday. They were set up and decorated in the Hungarian club rooms. The sight of the Christmas trees could steal the real warmth, joy and magic of the holiday into the heart and soul of the soldiers, serving many thousands of kilometres away from their homeland.