The normally bustling biblical birthplace of Jesus resembled a ghost town on Sunday, as Christmas Eve celebrations in Bethlehem were called off due to the Israel-Hamas war.
The festive lights and Christmas tree that normally decorate Manger Square were missing, as were the throngs of foreign tourists and jubilant youth marching bands that gather in the West Bank town each year to mark the holiday. Dozens of Palestinian security forces patrolled the empty square.
“This year, without the Christmas tree and without lights, there’s just darkness,” said Brother John Vinh, a Franciscan monk from Vietnam who has lived in Jerusalem for six years.
He said he always comes to Bethlehem to mark Christmas, but this year was especially sobering, as he gazed at a nativity scene in Manger Square with a baby Jesus wrapped in a white shroud, reminiscent of the thousands of children killed in the fighting in Gaza. Barbed wire surrounded the scene, the grey rubble reflecting none of the joyous lights and bursts of color that normally fill the square during the Christmas season.
I actually went to Bethlehem for Christmas Eve once… probably the worst traveling experience of my life… Palestinian kids trying to pickpock you every 5 minutes while you’re watching the mass from a big TV screen freezing your ass off paying for triple priced gross mulled wine all the hotels turn off the heat and make you pay extra if you want it turned on so we literally shivered all night and then the plumbing stopped working and we were told to not use the toilets. I would 100% discourage anybody from bothering to check it out no matter how much of a religious fanatic you are.
It probably wasnt much nicer experience for characters of the story either, so props for authenticity