 "Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral is pictured ahead of December 7 reopening ceremony. AP")
Saturday (December 7) marks a big day for the French. It’s the day that the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris will be reopened to the public, five years after a deadly fire destroyed the structure.
Notre Dame’s reopening, set for the second weekend of Advent (fourth Sunday before Christmas) will feature celebrations extending from December to Pentecost (49th day after Easter Day) on June 8, 2025, allowing more people to take part in the joyous revival of the cathedral, stated America magazine.
As Paris prepares for the grand opening of the Notre Dame de Paris, here is all you need to know about it.
A blend of religious ritual and showbiz
The celebrations will kick off on Saturday (December 7) with Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich banging on Notre Dame’s shuttered doors with his staff to reopen them after presiding over a reopening service, the cathedral website said.
The staff was created for the occasion by designer Sylvain Dubuisson. The wood — bearing visible black traces from the blaze — was made with pieces of the cathedral roof that collapsed in the inferno, Dubuisson told The Associated Press.
In response to the archbishop’s door-knocks, the cathedral will erupt into song, its choirs once again filling the cavernous spaces.
That back-and-forth will happen three times. The doors will then open so guests can stream inside past their sculptures of biblical figures.
Reviving the majestic organ
The event will also mark the reawakening of Notre Dame’s great organ that has been quiet since the 2019 fire that coated the nearly 8,000 pipes with toxic dust. Ulrich will address it directly with a series of eight incantations, starting with “Awaken, organ, sacred instrument: Sing the praise of God."
That prompt will launch a conversation with the organ, with four organists (Olivier Latry, Vincent Dubois, Thibault Fajoles and Thierry Escaich) taking turns to play its responses. They’ll be perched high above the congregation, seated at the newly renovated giant console that controls the instrument — through five keyboards of 56 notes each, foot pedals for 30 notes and 115 stops.
A musical night
Once the service gets over, opera singers Pretty Yende and Julie Fuchs, Chinese pianist Lang Lang, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Benin-born singer Angelique Kidjo, Lebanese singer Hiba Tawaji and others will perform at a concert on Saturday evening for the cathedral and those who took part in the reconstruction, reported AP quoting the show’s broadcaster, France Télévisions.
The security cordon sealing off the whole of the Ile de La Cité, plus a stretch of the Seine’s southern bank and nine of its bridges, will be in place from early Saturday evening to Sunday night, the police chief said. Only those involved in the ceremonies and residents will be granted access, he said. All shops on the island — many are geared to the tourist trade — as well as boat tours that start and stop there will be closed for the weekend, he added.
The guest list
The grand event has a guest list featuring billionaires and the everyday Parisians. US President-elect Donald Trump and dozens of heads of state have accepted invites from French President Emmanuel Macron for the event.
At the reopening, billionaire donors from France and beyond will rub shoulders with other guests far less fortunate. They’ll include “the poorest among Parisians, all those who are helped by charitable associations and who will be several hundred inside the cathedral,” Reverend Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, Notre Dame’s rector, told AP.
Before the fire, efforts to fund renovations of the nearly 900-year-old cathedral had been struggling. But that changed with the blaze. “We had an outpouring of support," said fund-raising committee member Michel Picaud. “I received 400 donations an hour, so my smartphone completely crashed.”
In all, 340,000 people from more than 150 countries donated €846 million (Rs 7,575 crore), the public body in charge of Notre Dame’s restoration said. The support testifies to global affection for the monument that transcends frontiers and faiths.
“It’s something which belongs to everybody,” Picaud told AP. The nonprofit he leads, Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris, has raised $57 million from 50,000 international donors, most of them Americans. “It’s not only a Parisian cathedral or monument," he said. “All over the world, I think, people have the feeling that this is part of their — I would say — heritage.”
Dolled-up for the occasion
Although construction work continues outside, the restored interiors look more magnificent than they have for generations. The limestone walls are creamy and luminous, cleaned of years of accumulated grime. Vaulted ceilings that collapsed have been repaired. The archbishop and other members have new garments, from a designer who has also dressed Beyoncé, Rihanna and others. The cathedral also has new furniture, including a new altar to replace one crushed when the flaming spire collapsed.
Also Read: Notre-Dame de Paris rises from the ashes: How France’s cultural icon was rebuilt
The rector said “no one alive has seen the cathedral” as it looks now. “The blondness of the stone, the brilliance of the paintings, the light through the stained glass windows, all the artworks, all the paintings, that were cleaned, the statues that were restored," he said.
With inputs from AP