On December 24th, I went down to Bethlehem to celebrate the birth of Jesus and listen to Christmas mass with my roommate Lydia and our Turkish Delight, Mustafa. I'm Jewish, Lydia is a Jew-Bu, an incredibly annoying nickname for Jewish Buddhists, and Mustafa is a Muslim. But we all went down anyway, because we thought that Christmas in Bethlehem would be an interesting experience. And we weren't disappointed!
We took an Arab group taxi down there with a bunch of Christiany Christians who also go to Hebrew University. When they asked us what kind of church we belong to back home, and my vague answer of "we're not really religious...." didn't work, we started to think that we should make up new names for ourselves. Leora, a super-Jewishy name, wouldn't work, so I picked "Mary". Mustafa became "Chris", and Lydia, despite having a secular name, and that most beautiful small nose that a Jew has ever had, chose "Jessica". We had a ton of time on the taxi down there. We sang Christmas carols! When we got to the Israel-West Bank border, the IDF (Israel Defense Force) soldier who checked to be sure that we were all right gave out candy from the Israeli government! Too cute.
When we got into Bethlehem, it was rainy, so we quickly got cold and wet. Despite the weather, Manger Square was pretty full, and they had different concerts on from 8 until the start of mass. Lydia and I separated from the rest of the group and did some tourist shopping, but after a while, we started to feel the effects of the cold weather. As we were walking down the street, Lydia said "I wish we had a bottle of wine!" and like a miracle, at that very second, we passed a small alcohol store!! It was a Christmas miracle!! So Lydia and I went in, selected a bottle of cheap wine (was less than $4, which is expensive for Israel standards), and when we realized that we didn't have a bottle opener, the nice store owner took out the cork for us. A little skeezy, but whatev! Then we found ourselves a nice little falafel restaurant, and sat down, guzzled our wine, and had a very merry time.
At 10 pm, we went into the Church to wait for midnight mass to start. There was no seating space, and people were packed in like sardines, but I sat down on the floor and was more or less comfortable. I couldn't actually see anything, because there was a massive camera in front of me (the mass in our church is the one that is broadcast across the world), but I enjoyed hearing it. For a bit. We didn't realize that Midnight Mass is about four hours long, and entirely in Latin. So after a while, Lydia, Mustafa and I left. But before we left Bethlehem for good, we stopped by the Church of the Nativity and visited the Grotto, where Jesus was born. It was cram packed with people, and they were singing, which was lovely. Opposite the Grotto was the Chapel of the Manger, the spot of the manger in which Jesus was placed after he was born. When we went by, there were people all around us crying. Although I am not Christian, I was very much impressed by the spirituality that they displayed. Christmas really is a beautiful holiday, and I was so glad that I was able to experience it in the city where it all began!
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