Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic lit the first Advent candle in the city's main square on Saturday, wishing everyone a peaceful Advent period and lots of hope, love and joy.

Tomasevic said the tradition of lighting four Advent candles represented four things that were very needed “in these difficult times,” the first representing hope, the second peace, the third love and the fourth joy.

The candle of hope is perhaps the most necessary today because “unfortunately, we have a war in Europe and we have people who had to leave their homes,” he added.

The ceremony of lighting the Advent candle was led by Monsignor Zlatko Koren, envoy of the Archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Josip Bozanic.

Speaking to the press, the mayor said he expected the best Advent to date over the next 40 days, without COVID protocols after two years.

“We have three new locations, about 100 concerts, transparent tenders for event organisers, for booths,” Tomasevic said. He expects over HRK 4 million (€535,000) in revenue for the city, four times more than in 2019, the year before the pandemic and the Zagreb earthquake.

The mayor said hotels were full and that Zagreb was full of tourists.

Given the energy crisis, Christmas lights will be on 30 minutes less than usual, and they are mainly LED lights, he added.

Zagreb Tourist Board director Marina Bienenfeld said that in terms of tourism results, some records from the pre-pandemic 2019 could be broken.

This year’s Advent is taking place on 20 locations, including 178 booths with food, drinks and other products on 12 of them, she added.