A Christmas journey from olive orchard to Nativity carving
BETHLEHEM: As Christmas pilgrims pore over the intricately carved Nativity scenes in Bethlehem shop windows, few pause to consider that some of the wood used comes from olive trees older than the events of the ancient story they depict.
The lacquered wooden manger displays are some of the most popular souvenirs bought by tourists visiting the West Bank Palestinian town that is by tradition the birthplace of Jesus.
Costing anything from $2 to $70,000 depending on size and quality, they are carved by some 125 workshops in and around Bethlehem, each putting its own distinctive stamp on the figurines of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the Three Wise Men and angels.
Maher Canawati, CEO of The Three Arches, a family-run business that dates to the 16th century, said an American bank last year paid him $120,000 for a particularly large display to be installed in its lobby.
Most, he said, sell for around $600 to $800.
Canawati, 41, said the olive trees can be more than 2,000 years old, but his industry faces heavy fines if a healthy tree felled. The figurines are carved from branches cut off during the pruning season in November and December, he said.
And the large trunks used for the Nativity scenes are usually from trees that have been moved for new buildings or roadworks, and that failed to “take” in their new location.
“We wait two seasons to make sure they are dead, that there is nothing green on them, before we cut them down,” he said. “Olive trees are holy trees for us, and we try as much as possible to turn all the trees that we cut down... into eternal artefacts.”
Meanwhile, Christmas cheer rang out through Bethlehem’s Manger Square on Monday as pilgrims and worshippers flocked to the city revered as Jesus’s birthplace and locals made final preparations for this year’s festivities.
Children dressed as Santa Claus sang carols and rang bells during a Christmas-themed show at the College des Freres, which sits in the biblical city’s central market where holiday decorations and wooden nativity scenes line the narrow alleys.
The main attractions in Bethlehem are the 4th-century Church of the Nativity, built over a grotto where Christian tradition says Jesus was born, and the 52-foot Christmas tree in Manger Square.
On Tuesday — Christmas Eve — the acting Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista
Pizzaballa, will lead a procession from Jerusalem to nearby Bethlehem and later celebrate Midnight Mass in the Church of the Nativity, squeezing through its narrow sandstone entrance.
Bethlehem’s Christmas season lasts through the Eastern Orthodox celebration on January 7 to Armenian Christmas on January. 18.