Haifa is a special city for many reasons. Perhaps its most unique aspect is that adherents of all three great monotheistic religions coexist there. There each group celebrates its holidays freely and openly, each such occasion featuring on the city's cultural agenda.

Every year, as December approaches, the streets of Haifa are dressed in lights, and businesses and restaurants are decorated and prepared to celebrate "ha-chag shel ha-chagim", the “holiday of Holidays". During the Christmas and Hanukkah season, the city seeks to transform itself and highlight the value of its religious diversity. Although since this tradition was instituted, neither Ramadan nor any other Muslim holiday has fallen in December, in the consciousness of the city’s population, the celebration is associated with all three religions.

Since 1993, the German Colony, an area located next to the Bahai Gardens, is decorated at the beginning of December with a Christmas tree, a Channukiya, and a Muslim crescent moon, which serve as the background to weeks of festivities and performances.

The "Holiday of Holidays" is a celebration that connects members of the different ethnic groups and religions that call Haifa home, who arrange to attend or participate in the different events, turning them into social meeting points. Israelis from other regions of the country also visit the city during this period to take part in one of the city’s most essential attractions.

The events include exhibitions, parades, performances, international conferences, concerts and unique tours, all addressing themes relevant to each of the three religious groups. The central coordination is undertaken by Beit Hagefen, a Jewish-Arab cultural center which seeks to build a shared society of coexistence, providing tools to deal with the complex challenges of a multi-cultural community, in cooperation with Haifa Municipality.

A new feature at this year’s holiday is the food stalls at Mercaz HaCarmel, located at the top of the city, where the Bahai Gardens end, allowing participants to enjoy the view of the city and the various activities going on below.

In seeking to define what makes this event genuinely diverse, Maria Yelenevskaya and Larisa Fialkova (2011) explain that one of the main aspects is that the festivities and activities occur in areas inhabited mainly by Christians and Muslims. On the other hand, given the great variety of activities that make up the event's agenda, everyone can participate through artistic activities, cooking, literature, lectures, etc.

The Holiday of Holidays is a celebration of life in Haifa, a city that is proud of the diversity of its population and that promotes cultural and interreligious discourse and freedom. According to Yelenevskaya and Fialkova (2011), “in the Israeli context, as an attempt to nurture intercultural familiarity and exchange between Arabs and Jews, the Holiday of Holidays is unique in terms of the scope of the events and the involvement of government institutions and NGOs. It is no coincidence that the holiday was conceived in Haifa, celebrating the peaceful coexistence of ethnic groups."

For more information about how the “Holiday of Holidays" is celebrated, here is the official website: https://www.haifahag.com/?lang=2