ICC Note: Following the December 12th Church bombing in Cairo, families were hardly able to celebrate Christmas. For the Abdo family, there was no tree, no Christmas decorations, just a somber month remembering and mourning for their 10-year-old granddaughter who was lost in the attack.

01/09/2017 Egypt (Washington Post): The couple didn’t buy a Christmas tree. Nor did they place any festive balloons and ornaments inside their modest apartment, as they’ve done for decades. On Friday night, when they and other Orthodox Coptic Christians celebrated Christmas Eve, they attended a somber service at a local church.

It was not at the church where their 10-year-old granddaughter, Maggie, died in a suicide bombing last month.

“There is no Christmas for us,” said Samir Abdo, his eyes welling up with tears, as his wife sat next to him, visibly anguished. “The moment Maggie was taken to the hospital, the clock just stopped.”

This weekend, millions of Coptic Christians across Egypt are celebrating Christmas, attending Christmas Eve Mass on Friday and joining gatherings of friends and family. But last month’s attack on St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral complex in Cairo that killed more than two dozen worshipers, as well as stoked fears for the future, cast a shadow over the Christian community during what is normally its most festive season.

At services across the nation, amid tightened security, the focus was on prayers for the victims — and their attackers.

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