| Oululaiset have Love/Hate Relationship with City's Christmas Stars |
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| By Edward Dutton | ||||||
| Tuesday, 12 December 2006 | ||||||
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Oululaiset have mixed feelings about the famous Christmas stars in the
city centre, according to research published in The Kaleva. The stars,
which have decorated Rotuaari at Christmas since 2002, were seen as
suitable for the town by some but 'dim' and 'plain' by others. The stars were introduced to replace much older Christmas lights that were starting to fail and look dated but, according to some Oululaiset, the replacements are not that impressive either. According to Heikki Viertala of 'Oulu Lights Centre,' the old lights were not bright enough to illuminate things so the solution in the meantime, when Rotuaari was widened and renewed, was to have bright lamp-posts and decorate those. Oulu Cathedral was already being illuminated in the 1930s. This stopped during the War and began again in the 1950s with various Christmas decorations and lights on the main street. By the 1960s, various Oulu shops were being decorated with lights. This, according to many residents, is the problem. There is so much more light now than there was in the 1950s. There are bright lamp-posts, shops that leave window lights on all night and shops the decorate themselves with lights at Christmas. As such, the Christmas lights are not bright enough and just get mixed into the other sources of light. Other residents, however, felt that the current lights were simple and beautiful.
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