That's right! Christmas comes but thrice a year, here in Jerusalem. Today was the third and final Christmas of this winter season (though technically only the second one this year). For a variety of different reasons, different groups celebrate Christmas on the 25th (Protestant and Catholics), the 6th (Epiphany - Greek Orthodox, and apparently Armenians on other parts of the world) and the 19th (Armenians here...perhaps partly because they adhere to the old calendar and perhaps partly because by celebrating on a different date they get the "holy places" more or less to themselves). At least that's my current understanding of the situation. Religious things tend to be rather complex around here, so doubtless I'm forgetting something.
Anyway, today, to celebrate Christmas, I wandered around the Old City with a friend. We stopped in to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher: a good reminder that whenever he was born (almost certainly not December or January), this baby was born to die.
People wait in line to go into the traditional site of the tomb of Christ
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