The organiser of this event is the Croatian Scouts' Association, and about 200 Croatian scouts gathered at European Square, from where they headed towards the Cathedral with the Light.
The patron of the national welcome ceremony, Sabor Speaker Jandroković, took part in the handover ceremony.
Jandroković said he was happy to take part in this ceremony also this year.
In the coming week, scouts will bring the Light of Bethlehem to the Croatian Parliament, Civil Protection directorate, and other institutions and organisations as well as in numerous parishes.
The Peace Light of Bethlehem is a programme inaugurated in Austria in 1987 as part of a charitable relief mission for handicapped children and people in need. It has gone to more than 20 countries in Europe, as well as the Americas.
Each year, a child from Upper Austria travels as a pilgrim to obtain the light from the grotto in Bethlehem. The light is then flown to Austria from where it is distributed at a Service of Dedication to delegations from across Europe who take it back, with a message of Peace, to their own countries for use at ecumenical services throughout the Continents and for the past decade on to the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Due to the ongoing situation in the Middle East, the Peace Light was not collected from Bethlehem this year. Instead, it was lit in Christkindl, the Austrian sister city of Bethlehem, from a light the Austrian scouts collected in 2023 and kept lit over the past year.