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Bethlehem Memories: Bay Area Family of Christian Arabs Re-Creates Customs of Distant Years

Posted on: Monday, 26 December 2005, 12:00 CST

By Kimra McPherson, San Jose Mercury News, Calif., San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

Dec. 26--George Elhihi remembers the smell of chestnuts roasting in Manger Square in Bethlehem. He remembers buses of tourists pulling into the city each Christmas, thousands of people gazing around in wonder. He remembers standing in the Church of the Nativity and being told, "This is where Jesus was born."

That was the Christmas of Elhihi's childhood. Now, living in the Bay Area, he and his siblings re-create some of those holiday traditions for their own children, hoping to pass the spirit of Bethlehem to the next generation. Each Christmas, the family gathers for a meal of roast lamb, a drink of arrack and -- most of all -- time with each other.

On Sunday, family members streamed by the dozens into the community room in Elhihi's San Carlos neighborhood, calling out greetings in English and Arabic as they kissed on the cheek. They dropped brightly wrapped presents at the foot of a small tree and handed over dishes filled with bits and pieces of the traditional meal: tabbouleh, hummus, roast lamb, eggplant salad. Adults clinked glasses of arrack, a licorice-flavored liquor. A soundtrack of Arabic Christmas carols played in the background, and the children sang out favorites like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" in a mix of both languages.

"Christmas is to love each other," Helen Elhihi, 76, George Elhihi's mother, said as her children and grandchildren clamored for their chance to hug her.

The Elhihis are among about 600 Christians from Bethlehem living in the Bay Area and Sacramento, according to the Rev. Labib Kobti, pastor at St. Thomas More Church in San Francisco. Kobti's parish alone has about 200 Catholics from Bethlehem, he said.

The Elhihis left Bethlehem in the 1970s. When one sister married a man from the Bay Area and moved to California, the rest of the family slowly followed. Since then, his birthplace has changed dramatically, said George Elhihi, 53, who still visits every two years. The threat of violence from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has hampered the city's Christmas celebrations in recent years, and the city is now surrounded by a 25-foot wall that makes entering and exiting difficult. Watching Christmas Eve services Saturday on an Arabic-language TV station, Elhihi heard reports of about 30,000 tourists -- more than in recent years but far fewer than the number of visitors he remembers from his childhood.

But on Sunday, the family was more interested in remembering the happy times: singing "O Come, All Ye Faithful" and other Christmas songs in the choir at the Church of the Nativity; listening to choruses from around the world sing carols in Manger Square; spending Christmas Day trekking through the city from house to house to visit all their relatives.

Their children have heard all the stories. Maher Elhihi, 25, one of George Elhihi's three sons, said he's always felt proud to carry on his family traditions. He said he remembered feeling a thrill when he heard "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and realized the song's namesake town was part of his heritage. Flavia Katwan, 38, George Elhihi's youngest sister, said her two young daughters love to tell their friends where their mother is from.

But Aida Araj, George Elhihi's eldest sister, said she'll always miss the Bethlehem Christmases of her youth -- the stillness in the air, the peaceful feelings, the delight in people's voices as they wished each other a merry Christmas.

"We have so much here, all the gifts in the world," said Araj, 55. "But I would give it all to bring back the feeling you get when you're back there."

Contact Kimra McPherson at kmcpherson@mercurynews. com or (408) 920-5928.

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Copyright (c) 2005, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

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Source: San Jose Mercury News

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