Bethlehem will resume Christmas festivities among COVID curbs | Coronavirus Plague News
The Christmas festivities in the town where Jesus Christ was born were abolished last year due to the closure of coronavirus.
Christmas festivities resumed this year in the Biblical town of Bethlehem, though reduced by restrictions on corona virus epidemic.
Bethlehem is back with its traditional marching bands and street festivals, scout groups playing drums and hoisting the flag in Manger Square.
The midnight mass celebrated by the Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, a Roman Catholic priest in the Holy Land, was also organized at Nativity Church, the birthplace of Jesus.
As he was leaving Jerusalem for Bethlehem on Friday, Pizzaballa said he hoped the plague would end.
“We need travelers to bring life to our communities,” he said. “We need to find this and we are all working because it is sad to see the Old City [of Jerusalem] almost empty. ”
The mayor of Bethlehem, Anton Salman, said he hoped the 2021 celebrations would be better than ever Last year’s Christmas, whereas even locals stay at home because of restrictions.
“Last year, our celebration was real, but this year it will be a face-to-face event with a popular participation,” Salman said.
A banning almost all passenger vehicles and Israel, however, has hosted foreign visitors for the second year in a row. This ban seeks to reduce the spread of serious infectious diseases Omicron range, which has rocked Christmas celebrations around the world.
Israel lifted a one-and-a-half year ban that forced many foreign tourists to leave in November, but was forced to withdraw within a few weeks as Omicron’s differences began to spread around the world.
Travel is a major concern in Bethlehem, and the lack of visitors has a profound effect on residents.
Ibrahim Salameh, a local tour guide, told Al Jazeera that he had not worked for the past two years.
“We have stopped relying on tourism, no one is confident enough,” said Salameh, adding that many of his acquaintances in tourism have lost interest in other areas including agriculture.
Salameh said he was “lucky” to visit early November, shortly after Israel allowed tourism to resume. “We just started to breathe a little bit, and then it was all over.”
He added that, although the crowd gathered in the main courtyard was probably one-tenth of what it used to be, the Christmas celebration this year looks more alive than in 2020, when shops and venues were closed.
“This gives me a little hope for the future,” Salameh said.
