Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-25

IH q Hl significance as in the Tiny
@ Syrian city of Bethlehem,
III WAMl for it was here that Jesus
8EzsM was born. In Bethlehem the
festival has retained its
purely religious character, and the Gus
toms and ceremonies associated with
it's celebration are distinctively Chris
tian and Oriental In America the re-
ligious ceremonial observance or
Christmas is overshadowed by holiday
customs which are the lineal descend
ants of Teutonic myths. The Christ
mas spirit is a Christian spirit, and
there is no need to expel Santa Claus
on the ground that he was once
Pagan. Nevertheless. it is interesting,
to observe how the birthday of Jesus
is celebrated in his native town.
Today Is Christmas to but few of the
people of Bethlehem, for a majority OF
the Bethlehemites are COMMITMENTS
of the Greek Orthodox church, which
holds to the Julian calendar, and which
will celebrate Christmas twelve days
hence.
But today is Christmas wherever the
Gregorian calendar is in use, and 1t Is
Christmas to the Roman Catholics ana
to the Protestants of Bethlehem There
are perhaps a thousand Catholics and
a hundred Protestants among the ma
tives of the town. To them Christmas
is day of rest and enjoyment. cele-
brated by the consumption of liberal
quantities of the peculiar wine Tor
which Bethlehem is famous among
Syrians and infamous among Euro
| peans and Americans. 1t is gala day
| and the truly beautiful girl of Beth
! lehem wears her tiara of gold coins,
! her necklaces of silver five-franc pieces
and her bracelets of bronze money;
for every girl wears her dowry IN
money most plainly to be seen. From
! the top of her jaunty little bonnet
| falls "A veil, not over her face as the
! Mosem women would wear it, but over
| her shoulder. which veil proclaims that
| Bethlehem Is the town of her nativity
! 1t was such veil that Ruth wore
when she won the heart of Boaz, who
was mayor of Bethlehem, something
/ over 2000 years ago.
! The celebration which today en-
| crosses the Latin church population OF
Bethlehem will on the Greek Christmas
Tbe extended to the entire city, for Lat
| ins as we'll as Greeks join ip the pop
| ular observance of Old Christmas. The
Latin Christmas which we observe in
! America is. however, the occasion of
| the most beautiful ceremonial celebra-
| ton of all the year in Bethlehem, a
| city where ceremonials never cease and
where religious alteration is literally
! perpetual As in all the Catholic
world Christmas is ushered in by the
solemn and inspiring midnight mass.
| On the day before Christmas the Latin
patriarch of Jerusalem. who is the head
| of the Franciscan order in Palestine,
! the order which has charge of all the
sacred Latin shrines in the Holy Land,
escorted by the consul general of
Two, DrnRnrGiDnal from
Jerusalem over the six miles roadway,
| by the convent of st. Elijah and the
| tomb of Rachel, to Bethlehem. The
procession is made up of all the Latin
| priests and monks from the various
| churches and converts of Jerusalem.
1t is met in the market place of Beth
| lehem by the Franciscan monks who
| guard the Latin interests in the
| Church of the Nativity and who are
the priests of the parish church of st.
| Catherine which is under the roof
of the great Church of the Nativity.
There is a boys choir made up of
sturdy, ruddy faced boys of Bethlehem
| who are the worthy successors of
| David himself in psalmody. The bands
play and the choir chants as the sol
/ emn professional forms at 10 o'clock
! at night and marches into the Latin
chapel Of the church. Here are gath
cred all of the native Catholics of the
| city, most of whom are women. The
women chatter and gossip and laugh,
and seemingly have none Of that sense
! Of propriety which western Catholics
possess in so marked a degree. The
! chatter Is permitted to go on for
awhile and then one or two sturdy
Francscans rush into the crowd in
| the church and chastise the offending
| frivolous women by beating them with
| the cords of their robes.
In Palestine the Catholic churches
for the most part initiate the Greek
| custom and have no seats in church,
so that the worshipers either stand or
kneel. In none of the churches in the
Holy Land does the congregation seem
to have any obligation to keep quiet.
But II must not be inferred that they
are not devout, for, on the contrary,
the greater portion of the disturbance
is caused by an excess of religious
fervor. This high emotlonalism finds
expression in shouting and in swaylng