Jbail Municipality, Tuesday, 26 November, 2014: On the occasion of this year’s holidays, the Municipality of Jbail has inaugurated, in cooperation with Byblos Bank, the 2014 Christmas decoration, during a ceremony held in the Roman Street. Attendance included the President of the Jbail municipality Ziad Hawat, with members of the municipal council; the Deputy General Manager and Head of Group Consumer Banking of Byblos Bank Group Mrs. Joumana Bassil Chelala, representing Dr. François Bassil, Chairman and General Manager of Byblos Bank Group; the Qaimaqam of Jbail Najwa Sweidan Farah; the Head of Jbail Ontoch Father Jean-Paul El Hajj; and a number of municipality presidents and mayors from the Jbail district, Byblos Bank branch managers, journalists and citizens.
The celebration started with the lighting up of the Christmas tree in the Roman Street that is 30-meter high, covered with 2,500 gold-colored iron leaves, and has a crib reaching 12 meters in width. This year, the decoration of Jbail is characterized by the embodiment of many nativity scenes through designs of multi-shape layers; the two key scenes being present in Jbail Souks and inside the main Christmas tree. The decoration embraces the entire city and gives it a particular Christmas spirit through the special lighting that consists of 400,000 bulbs.
In the inaugural ceremony, Mr. Ziad Hawat delivered a speech in which he thanked Byblos Bank for permanently supporting Jbail’s development projects and for sponsoring the Christmas decoration project this year. He wished Jbail and the Lebanese citizens happy holidays, and said: “We have committed ourselves to embellishing Jbail. Here we are honoring our commitment and here is Jbail becoming more and more beautiful. The decoration that we are inaugurating today is a further step in this process and in our quest to attract more visitors to the city and achieve further development and prosperity.”
Byblos Bank’s support for Christmas decoration in Jbail stems from its commitment to back development projects in the city, and thus achieve more economic prosperity, with all what entails as social, cultural and touristic development. The Bank has already lent strong support to many projects in the city and its district, including the reconstruction of the Fidar Bridge in only a 5-month period following the July 2006 war; the renovation of Jbail Souk facades; the support of Byblos International Festival for 11 years in a row; and the building of the Red Cross center in the city.