Christmas in the Village
By Maria C. Khoury, Ed. D.

December 16, 2000

The Nativity of our Lord and Savior is a magnificently celebrated event in our small village of Taybeh as are all of the sacred holidays in the Holy Land.  It’s popular to combine the spiritual celebration with the cultural heritage, thus every year the boy scouts march to the beat of drums throughout the village announcing the peace, love, and joy of Christmas. Boys and girls with happy faces showing off everything they have been practicing the previous months at the youth club. These Christmas Eve celebrations happen with the backdrop of beautiful wall murals that depict the birth of Christ painted throughout the village center by our own local young artist Shafik Massis. These paintings reflect the rich Christian heritage our little village can offer pilgrims if only we could live in peace and have our freedom and rights as Palestinians.  

These same happy children will later rush to enter the church when they hear the charming bells announcing the Christmas Eve services ringing in the joyous time in remembering Christ’s birth two thousand years ago. The children will anxiously wait throughout the prayers to receive beautiful little packages filled with candies, toys and religious books. The nuns have usually prepared these Christmas gifts with generous donations that other Christians from around the world have sent to Taybeh to express their solidarity with the only all-Christian village that is currently in existence not just in the Holy Land but in the entire Middle East region.

Taybeh is the modern name for the biblical village of Ephraim with currently about 1500 residents. We are proud to have five beautiful churches. The ruins of St. George Greek Orthodox Church built in the fourth century; the modern St. George Church Greek Orthodox Church built in 1932; the new Latin Church built in l971 dedicated to “The Last Retreat of Jesus.” The magnificent Greek Catholic Church and a private enchanting chapel with retreat facilities built by a French monk. All these ecclesiastical choices situated in our tiny village about 20 miles north of Jerusalem on the very slope of Mount Asur, the highest mountain in biblical Judea and Samaria.

Our village in modern times is famous because the Khoury family started producing “Taybeh Beer,” one of the finest Palestinian products in the region. “Taybeh Beer” is the first Palestinian product to receive franchise in Germany so it is brewed and bottled in Germany under the license of Taybeh Brewing Company. It is this family investment in the Palestinian economy that encouraged me to bring my three children to their father’s village following the historic Oslo Agreement.  It’s just a tiny spot on the map away from the modern world and what we had believed to be an innocent and peaceful place to develop our Palestinian identity. The roots of most Christians here go back to the early Church. 

Our village in biblical times is know for receiving Jesus and his disciples after the decision was taken by the Sanhedin to prosecute Christ. “Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews; but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, unto a city called Ephraim…(John 11-54).  And because Taybeh is a biblical site holding a special position as a village of reception and meeting, the Latin Patriarchate built the Charles de Foucauld Reception Center in 1986 within the complex of the Latin parish in remembrance of the French hermit that was in Taybeh during l889. The center can receive visitors for a single meal, a full day, a weekend and can also lodge groups of pilgrims. This center continues to remain empty because the current atrocities in the Holy Land are too frightening for Pilgrims to encounter. The easy ride to Bethlehem to venerate the birthplace of our Lord and Savior at the Nativity Church can take up to two hours during this siege on Palestine, although it’s a simple 45 minute ride during peaceful times. This Christmas, not only will we be too scared to drive to the Nativity Church, but we are terrorized every time we see the Israeli soldiers in our village pointing their guns at innocent civilians.  

Because the Israeli military occupation can not go away for Christmas, they have instead taken away the Christmas celebrations from us.  They have stolen the Christmas spirit and peace from each and every child in this village thereby cheating them, one more time, from another childhood experience.  There will be no Christmas lights to illuminate the village this year in respect for the martyrs, there will be no Christmas trees to rejoice the birth of Christ because the continued massacre of Palestinians has left a dark shadow in all of our hearts.  There will be no boy scouts marching, no choir voices chanting joyous Christmas songs, there will be no beautiful paintings depicting the joy and peace that the Christmas season offers humanity.  There will be no little packages with candies and toys for children.  There will be no Christmas celebrations in this picturesque Christian village.

When you ask children what Christmas will be like this year, they usually have the same answer:  “Depressing and sad.”  When you ask why?  They usually say “because there is no joy, no happiness, no one wants to bake Christmas cookies, nobody can have a party, everybody is dying.  And these children are right because we have entered our Christmas season with heavy hearts due to the killings we see every day, and the thousands of innocent people wounded and paralyzed for life.  How can we celebrate when everyone around us is suffering?

But the true Christmas message is suppose to give hope to all mankind and thus we pray for peace in Palestine and for justice to prevail so that Palestinian children can live like all children of the world with peace, love and joy.