[Unstagram] Dinner Together Under the Light Amid Ruins

A Place Without Windows or Rooms
Light Makes It Uniquely Their Own

The sun had just disappeared beyond the horizon, but the light of day still lingered on the ground. Along the road winding through the ruins, small lanterns hung in a row were lit. These tiny lights at dusk exist uniquely in a time that belongs neither to day nor night. Among the thousands of photos transmitted daily through communication lines, a few pictures taken in the Gaza Strip of Palestine caught my eye.

On the evening of the 1st, Gaza Strip residents lit lamps along a path through the ruins and began their Ramadan iftar. Photo by AP Yonhap News

The small lantern lights hanging from wires connected to roadside sticks and broken concrete piles grew more prominent as the darkness deepened. Before the city was reduced to ruins by bombings, each house and street would have had its own light. Faces of people heading home would have been visible through the lit windows of passing cars, and beyond the windows of the houses, each independent world would have quietly remained intact.

Residents of Gaza City, Palestine, gathered on a road among the ruins at dusk on the 6th to have their first meal of the day, the 'Iftar.' Photo by AP Yonhap News

During Ramadan, Muslims observe the rule of not eating or drinking anything before sunset. After the sun sets, people gather to have their first meal, called 'Iftar.' To mark Ramadan, the entire neighborhood came together, pulling electrical wires, setting up poles along the roadside, and hanging lanterns. Even amid the ruins of war, this seemed like a confirmation of existence and a declaration that the world still goes on. At a time when the remaining traces of daylight prevent the darkness from completely hiding the world, the pre-lit lights evoke a slight sense of abundance. Though darkness would soon fall, the fact that the lights were already on brought a sense of relief that there was no need to worry. People who once called this place home came out from tents pitched over the ruins and refugee camp tents, placing chairs and tables under the long rows of lights along the road to eat dinner. Though it was an evening without windows or rooms, the lights signified that this was a space uniquely theirs. The warmth on the faces of family, relatives, and friends nearby, illuminated by the lights, would ease anxiety and loneliness and create an indescribable bond. As the darkness deepened, the tent of light created by the small incandescent bulbs transformed the place into a space like a large community stadium.

A few days after seeing the photos, news came that Israeli authorities decided to cut off the electricity supply to the Gaza Strip to pressure the Palestinian armed group Hamas.

On a drizzly afternoon, a streetlight is lit in the yard of a church in Seoul. (2013) ⓒHeo Younghan

Two lights are on in a dried seafood shop at Huam Market in Seoul on a late spring afternoon. (2015) ? Heo Young-han

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.