Church of Nativity

From Israel to Bethlehem does not need to do other procedures, pay the money and the tour guide to go in, the Christmas church is of course one of the attractions, anyway, religious belief is more important, for us, it is purely a wonder.

Stay for thousands of years, avoiding the erosion of time. After the change of different regimes, I am very glad that the Church of Christmas is still standing, and the church is now managed by the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic Church. In 2012, the Church of the Christmas was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Palestine. In 2016, under the skillful hand of the Italian monument restoration team, it was found hidden behind the cement wall in the fourth century AD shining secret, but it was not expected to be a fresco made of gorgeous mosaic magnet tiles, which was re-colored and re-emerged.

We’ve been talking about my three-year Christmas trip these days (interested friends can read the previous one). 2020, the least lively Christmas is over, so our series of stories should be close, this is the last of the season's "I'm here for Christmas" series, so I chose the Christmas Church in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, to talk to everyone! The origin of Bethlehem Christmas Church was built on the site of the "Birth of Jesus in the Manger" written in Matthew, one of the four Gospels! As you stand on the manger square in the center of Bethlehem you can see the castle-like Christmas church (picture 2 is the exterior of the 19-year renovation, while pictures 16 and 17 were taken during the 2017 and 18 maintenance work, respectively), the church is not familiar from the outside The tall and magnificent appearance, because after various periods of construction and expansion and transformation formed such a special fortress style, the church has no gates and only a small stone gate of one meter high (Figure 3) for people to enter and exit, this is the famous "door of humility" The moral is to bow down and lean down, no matter what your status is as a beggar or an emperor coming to this place to worship Jesus. In fact, the gate was preserved because of the temporary entrances and exits left by the Palestinians when they blocked the church gate with stones after the Crusades occupied Bethlehem! Entering the church is dim and candlelight swaying. Walking up to the end of the hall is the main altar of the church, which is gorgeous and redundant, with a string of antique chandeliers hanging in the air (Figure 4). To the right of the main altar is a stone gate similar to the "gate of humility", leaning down to the Christmas hole (also known as the Star Cave of Bethlehem), which is the Mahd Cave, the birthplace of Jesus, recorded in Matthew. Bethlehem Star Cave (Figure 5, 6, 7) is narrow and curved and dark and mysterious. It is only found that the Star Cave is very small, the hole is12.3 meters long and3.15 meters wide. A low, semicircular marble wall can be seen on the right side of the stone stepsthis is the altar, the first half depicts the birth of Jesus after Mary’s inspiration, and the second half uses silk-covered tents (which are replaced each Christmas, So you can see the difference from my photos of different years) surrounded by the "Bethlehem Star", 15 long oil lamps from various Christian schools around the star hole, in the Latin engraved on the "Bethlehem Star": "Here is the birth of Jesus Christ." This small place is a sacred corner that affects more than a billion believers! As for his birthday, that is, today's Christmas, there are various opinions, it is said that in 386 AD the Church unified December 25 as Christmas anniversary, it is puzzled that the AD law was confirmed in 528, is the year of the birth of Jesus as the first year of the first year, the first birthday date, The later years are amazing. Orthodox Christians have traditionally calculated Christmas Day in older Julians, so Orthodox Christians later set January 7 as Christmas!

The Church of the Birth - located in the West Bank city of Bethlehem in Palestine, is the oldest Christian church in Bethlehem to date. Legend has it that Jesus was born in a manger. We entered the church in a devout queue, there was a Christmas star, and there would be God's protection.

This is a major Christian holy site in Bethlehem, where Jesus was traditionally believed to have been born. It also remains the oldest Christian church to date. It is now jointly managed by the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches. It was listed on the World Heritage List in 2012, but it was just decorated in the interior, and it was crowded to see the manger where Jesus was born.

Christians come a short distance to the birthplace of Jesus for a pilgrimage

The entire Christmas church looks like a medieval castle

On the way to Bethlehem, we met with traffic control. It was said that someone had just been attacked on this section of the road. I don't know whether it was Israelis or Palestinians. The road was blocked by Israeli soldiers. Let's wait for instructions. For them, such things have happened or will happen every day, so that the whole country will be a soldier. How difficult it is to be peaceful at this time. Because of this, we only saw the Christmas Church in Bethlehem, but also in a hurry. In fact, I really like these ancient churches. They have no fixed structure, unlike modern churches, they are mostly of the same size. The most important thing in the church is the underground church, which is said to be the place where Jesus was born. Now there is a sign of the 14-horned silver star. When the believers come in, they will touch and pray piously. It's a worship from the heart.