Gaza Christians mark Christmas without trees, rituals or Bethlehem pilgrimage amid war

Christian families in Gaza are marking Christmas this year under the strain of the war, with many traditions still suspended. A Christian woman named Mei, whose home has been affected by the fighting, is trying to bring a small Christmas tree and decorations into her house. She appeared in plain everyday clothes as she hung bells and yellow lights, and she said her youngest daughter, Mary, does not know what a Christmas tree is because the war began when the child was two.

Mei said she plans to take her children to church for the lighting of the Christmas tree, so they can experience rituals they have been without for two years. She described the period as one of bombing, hunger and displacement. “Thinking about Christmas during the war was luxury and impossible,” she said. “The search for a safe place and a living was a priority for me and everyone here, Muslims and Christians.”

The report describes the church community’s traditions as disrupted. Christmas celebrations for Gaza’s Christians usually begin in mid-December with the ringing of old church bells, but this year the bells did not ring. The Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrios in Gaza City is mentioned in the report in connection with a service in April 2024, when a child carried candles, and a photograph shows the damaged front of the Holy Family Church in the monastery complex, which the report says was harmed by Israeli shelling.

Travel has also been cut off. Mei had hoped to visit the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in the West Bank. She said, “This is the third year that I have been denied access to the Church of the Nativity due to the closure of the Erez crossing.” According to the report, Israel had allowed Gaza Christians to travel through the Erez crossing before the war, but after fighting broke out it stopped them from leaving, in the context of restrictions the report describes as affecting the population of the Strip as a whole.

Because Gaza’s Christians cannot travel, a Jerusalem patriarch, identified in the source as Cardinal Pitsabala, made his annual Christmas visit to them at the Holy Family parish, which marks the start of the season. The report says he found the holiday observed without lights or public celebration for a third year. Churches that would normally be preparing to welcome Christmas are now, in the report’s words, in mourning.

Mei spoke of the war as a time of fear, death, hunger and destruction, which she said does not fit with the joy of the holiday. She also said she had kept hope that Christmas could come in peace. The report closes with a statement that reads: “What happened in Gaza is not and will not be forgotten, we must look to the future, we will rebuild our homes and schools and we will rebuild our lives from here, and we will stay here and in this sea of destruction, seeking to be an example for all of the meaning of rebuilding.”

Source: Read the original report (translated from Arabic)