Golden chimes from Bethlehem

by Meghavarna Kumarasinghe

Church bells in the birthplace of Christ will ring out this year their Christmas message to a world threatened by man's suspicions and hatreds.

The chimes from Bethlehem will carry not only joyful tidings of peace to men of goodwill, but also a grim warning to mankind to beware of self destruction.

The majority of Christians throughout the world celebrate the birth of the Redeemer, horrible engines of devastation will be standing by ready to go off at the press of a button, polluting the very air with man-made dust of death.

Silver star

As the bells ring out, the spotlight of world interest will shift to a small damp cave whose walls are blackened by age and candle smoke the cave in Bethlehem under the oldest church in existence, the cave where, according to tradition, Jesus Christ was born 2014 years ago.

Late on Christmas eve, a venerable prelate, will walk down the winding slippery, marble steps which lead down to this cave. In his arms, he will carry the life-size figure of an infant, carved in wood, priests and canons of the church, swinging censers will walk with him. Acolytes and choir boys holding flickering candles will lead the procession.

There in the ancient cave where a silver star proclaims in Latin Hic ex Maria Virgine Jesus Christu natus est (hero of the Virgin Mary Jesus Christ was born) is told once more the gospel story of the Christ born in a stable to redeem mankind.

The Catholic prelate, then places the figure of the infant on a heap of straw upon the manger hewn in the rock.

As he does so, throngs of worshipers and tourists will hear the bells of the church of the nativity ring out in gay peals, carrying the Christmas message of hope and peace from Bethlehem to the whole of Christendom.

Thousands of pilgrims and devout Christians are expected this year to come to celebrate Christmas in the holy land since relative quiet reigns in the region where strife and violence has barred many a pilgrim in past years.

Many of the visitors will discover, like Joseph and Mary, that there is no room at the Inn, that hotels in neighbouring cities and towns have been solidly booked for the great Christian festival.

They will also find strange though colourful scenes in the usually serene little town, which comes to life on this anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Angels

There, in Manger Square a great pine tree will be decorated with cotton wool, snow and angels nestling in its branches amid a mesh of coloured lights.

In the milling crowd, they will see native peasants in flowing robes rubbing shoulders with monks and nuns in the medieval garb of crusader days. In the throng of worshippers there will be clergymen in black cassocks and white surplices, canons in red and nuns wearing black habits and white starched headdresses, silk-hatted diplomats and hawkers peddling mother-of-pearl crucifixes.

Worshipers at the many Christians churches celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem, each with their age-old traditions and customs.

Here the Gospel of Christ's birth is chanted each year in Latin and Greek in Arabic in the Aramaic spoken in the days of Christ and in the scores of languages of the modern world.

Christmas

Separate services mark the same great festival though owing to calendar differences, the celebrations are held on different dates.

On January 7, for instance, the Greek-orthodox and other sects who follow the eastern calendar will hold their Christmas celebrations. At midnight on their Christmas eve, the Greek-orthodox clergy walk in procession in the Church of the Nativity chanting litanies about the three wise men from the cast who sought the new-born Christ.

Later officiating at mass the Greek-orthodox Patriarch. Benedictus, will be wearing for the occasion the mantles of the Byzantine kings.

Again on January 18 the Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates the advent of Christmas in the same grotto under the Church of the Nativity. Their service like those of other sects includes hymn chanting referring to “Peace on earth to men of goodwill.”

For Christians of the western rites, Catholics and Protestants, Christmas is celebrated on the night of December 24-25.

Protestants

A united carol service is held by Protestants of all denominations at Shepherds’ Field outside Bethlehem, where the first news of Christ's birth was brought by the angels to the simple folk tending their flocks.

More elaborate celebrations by the Catholics begin early in the afternoon of December 24 when there is a magnificent procession from Jerusalem to Bethlehem led by the highest ranking Catholic priest in the holy land.

The bells in Bethlehem are already ringing when the highest ranking Catholic priest flanked by church dignitaries, arrives at Manger Square. A large crowd is always there to watch the prelate stoop to enter the small doorway “the needle's eye”in the grey massive wall of the Basilica of the Nativity.

The climax comes late at night as the bells peal again calling on the faithful to midnight mass and ringing in dawn of Christmas.