Christmas in Bethlehem

Christmas in Bethlehem.

You've all been waiting for this blog post since the moment you heard I was traveling to the Holy Land for a year.  I would also venture to say that a number of you thought of me when you sang "O Little Town of Bethlehem" in church on Christmas Eve.  It probably brought tears to my mom's eyes, for sure, and probably a few others.  It was an amazing Christmas.  Unfortunately, the words to "O Little Town of Bethlehem" are not entirely accurate.  Bethlehem is no longer some quiet, peaceful, little town.  It's currently separated by a wall and experiencing a suffering economy, due to these changes.  Bethlehem is one of the most fortunate places in the West Bank, as far as accessibility, but it's still difficult here.  There has been a movement to actually ban singing this Christmas carol in some churches because of its inaccuracy.  Some manger scenes have included a wall between the shepherds and baby Jesus.  Let's be honest, if the sheperds were from Jerusalem, they wouldn't have made it to Jesus' birth, unless they had the right permit.  I know this is sad and depressing, but I want you to be aware of it.  I had an awesome Christmas, but remember those key details to life here.  I will do my best to remain optimistic.  I will be following this post with a post about the situation in Gaza, to keep the two as separate as possible.

Christmas in Bethlehem was phenomenal!  First of all, I was really blessed to live with two girls who support my need for decorations.  Thus, we have a fake fireplace, stockings hung, some Christmas lights, some pine branches, and even part of a tree!  I say part, because it was someone's trimming job...it's concave on the top.  I have also been blessed to be a part of an amazing international community that celebrated lots.  We had a big Christmas cookie decorating party at our house last weekend.  We also had two different nights of potluck-ing and Christmas carol singing at some of the others' homes.

As for Christmas itself, we celebrated Christmas Eve by spending the majority of the day in Manger Square.  There was a large parade, comprised of the various scout groups in the area.  They played Christmas carols on bagpipes and drums and marched through town.  It was awesome!  I ran into a teacher from my school, whose three kids are all in classes I work with.  I ran into a lot of other students and people from church.  It was nice to realize that I know people here and that I'm just a random tourist.  We actually watched the parade with that family, and his youngest daughter, Mae, insisted on having me hold her.  He asked her if she loved me and if I was her best friend in Arabic.  She excitedly responded yes.  She's actually not been to school for nearly two months now, because her grandmother passed away.  It's tough, because she should be in school, but she adamantly refuses to go.  She was really excited to see me, though, so that was a nice feeling.

We continued to watch the parade, where we saw the Latin Patriarchs from Jerusalem come through in their hot pinks hats.  They were coming to Nativity Church, probably for the Midnight Mass later that evening.  We spent the day in Manger Square, then headed in to get seats in Christmas Lutheran Church for the service.  We claimed seats at 3:45, for the 5pm service, because they were only offering seating for 75 people in the sanctuary.  It's a small church anyway, but they needed room for two choirs, several church elders, and some foreign dignitaries.  The service was a live broadcast, but I'm not really sure where it ended up.  We sang the hymns in our own respective languages, the hymns being traditional Christmas hymns.  It was crazy to hear "Hark the Herald" in Arabic, German, and English, simultaneously.  It was also crazy to think that I was spending Christmas in Bethlehem.  I did feel bad about the service though, because we hearded a group of our young international friends in, but there were definitely not many of the actual members of Christmas Lutheran Church there.  Granted, I'm sure some of that comes with the territory.  For instance, people of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City are probably used to masses with tourists who get their souvenir coin on the way out the door.  I would not expect this from my experience with Zion Lutheran Church in Indiana, Pennsylvania, so it confuses me.

After a delightful Christmas Eve service, we headed off to Beit Sahour for dinner at a restaurant called the Tent.  It's designed to look like a Bedouin tent, with a low, drooping fabric ceiling and tapestry-covered benches.  The food was great, but the entertainment was better.  At one point, they lowered the lights, and starting blasting the Arabic version of "Jingle Bells."  In sprinted not one, but TWO Santa Clauses, launching gift packages at the tables in the back corner.  My group of friends started to yell, of course, so they came over and threw presents at us.  We ended with Santa hats, toy racecars, balloon animals, noise-makers, etc.  It was great.  I could have asked for a better Santa visit than that!  We headed back for more Manger Square time, but things had pretty much died down.  The lights were beautiful there though!  Check out the pictures at some point.

Christmas Day was church in Jerusalem, followed by a brunch at the pastor's house.  It was nice to be around lots of people and relax.  We were able to eat and laugh and remember that Christmas was about a gift.  A gift from God: Christ.  We have been given the gift of being able to experience Christmas in this place.  I've had the gift of a supportive family, despite how hard it is to say goodbye to me, loving friends, who will forever hear the stories of "One time, when I was in Bethlehem...", and people who are here and home to welcome me into a community.  I'll be completely honest, I wasn't homesick at all, minus one moment, this Christmas.  The moment I felt homesick, was when my sister told me that my brother made a derogatory statement, paused, and said that he missed me, because I would have yelled at him for that.  I know that may be insignificant to you, but the fact that it was yet another "little moment" where I was missed and where I miss them, was intense.  

Random side note, my favorite part of Christmas here?  Over 50% of the kindergarteners on Tuesday were wearing Santa Claus costumes, complete with fake beards.  Hysterical.  Alright, I'll be posting plenty of Christmas pictures, as soon as I can.

Merry Christmas!!!