The light that unites". - is the motto of this year's relay of the Bethlehem Light of Peace. The flame from the Bethlehem Grotto of Christ's Birth has reached Poland for the 28th time. According to the long tradition scouts from the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association handed it over to the Speaker of the Sejm on Wednesday. The meeting was also attended by the Chief of the Chancellery of the Sejm Agnieszka Kaczmarska.

Marek Kuchciński thanked the scouts for coming to the Sejm, wished them luck and signed the Christmas bauble. The guests also received small gifts to commemorate their visit. Then, the Speaker of the Sejm handed the flame to the Marshal's Guard, who carried it to the main hall and placed it on the pedestal opposite the main entrance to the building.

"Today at the Sejm, I received the Bethlehem Light of Peace from scouts, which is a transmitter of universal values of harmony and brotherhood," Marek Kuchciński wrote.

The idea of the Bethlehem Light of Peace was born in Austria where in 1986 the flame from the Bethlehem grotto, the place of Christ's birth, was carried for blind children. Two years later Austrian scouts went to Bethlehem to collect the Light themselves. Since then this symbol of peace and unity goes to Vienna every year and scouts from different countries spread the Light across Europe as a symbol of peace, understanding and reconciliation between nations.

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Photo by Marta Marchlewska