Deprived of its usual tourist influx by the pandemic, Bethlehem will celebrate a quiet Christmas this year that is less about commerce and more about religion, says its parish priest.
In a normal year hundreds of thousands of visitors flood the Palestinian city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, located less than 10 kilometres (six miles) from Jerusalem.
Those seeking a quiet moment of contemplation in the Church of Nativity — the site of Christ’s birth, according to tradition — generally have to use their elbows to manoeuvre through the crowds.
While the lack of visitors has been devastating for business owners, it has also offered a rare opportunity for solemn worship, said Father Rami Asakrieh, Bethlehem’s parish priest.
“Sometimes there are more than half million people who arrive in this period to visit the Nativity Church,” he told AFP.
But with coronavirus restrictions making travel to Bethlehem all but impossible for foreign worshippers, the Church of the Nativity has been eerily calm in the days before Christmas.
Under the Grotto of the Nativity, the recitation of Armenian prayers by four monks echoed clearly through the basilica deserted of its typical throngs of visitors.
The Christmas Eve mass on Thursday, regarded as the most important annual event at the church, will be closed to the public.
Not even representatives of the Palestinian Authority will come to Bethlehem on December 24, Asakrieh said.
Read the article by in the International Business Times.