Whereas Christmas is an annual spotlight for many individuals all over the world, naturally in Bethlehem, it’s one thing further particular. It might probably really feel just like the little city is all the time constructing as much as this vacation. However nowadays, somebody vital is lacking: my grandmother. Teta Julia really liked Christmas, an event for therefore many issues that she cared deeply about: flavorsome meals, beneficiant hospitality, charitable giving, the preservation of traditions, and, after all, huge household get-togethers.
My grandmother Julia was the principal inspiration for my ardour for cooking as a boy. I spent a whole lot of time at her home, absorbing her busy day by day routine. There would all the time be engaging smells and a frenzy of exercise within the kitchen as meals have been ready, typically for friends. In the meantime, farmers would name instantly on the entrance door to supply their seasonal specialities: ripe prickly pears, watermelons from Jenin, fats courgettes (zucchini), and finger-length aubergines (eggplant) from Battir.
The times began early, and infrequently by 10 within the morning, my grandmother can be patiently ready on the terrace for a pal to attend an occasion on the Arab Girls Union, the place she was one of many founders. To my delight, girls coming to see her from neighbouring villages would typically bear tasty presents: candy dibs (grape molasses) from Khirbet Beit Zakariyyah or honey from Ubeidiya, and salty laban jameed (salted and dried yogurt) from native Bedouin communities.
As Christmas approached, my grandparents’ residence would bustle excitedly with power. My grandmother had been raised in a house the place Christmas traditions have been massively vital. That they had been ingrained in her by her father, my great-grandfather, Mattia Kattan, whom she described compellingly in her guide, Lest We Neglect. Sadly, he died earlier than I used to be born, however I appreciated that he was the well-traveled, multilingual son of a former mayor of Bethlehem, a service provider with retailers in Amman, Haifa, and Jerusalem, who was devoted to his giant household. He was the loving father of eight women—an completed lineup which included each my grandmothers—and one boy.
My grandmother took big delight in our metropolis and all the time strove to protect its tales and recollections for locals in addition to its many worldwide guests. This could clearly be seen within the Beituna al-Talhami Museum, which was established by the Arab Girls Union beneath her administration and thru her document of neighborhood work. Lengthy earlier than December 24, Christmas Eve for our Catholic household, she and her mates can be knitting sweaters to be despatched as Christmas presents to Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. There have been all the time charitable fundraising actions and Christmas events for the much less well-off in our neighborhood to prepare, too.
My grandmother instilled in all her grandchildren the values of solidarity and philanthropy. My siblings, cousins, and I have been all the time inspired to consider these much less lucky than ourselves, significantly within the run-up to Christmas. We’d make small donations from our pocket cash to native charities, together with the orphanages, in order that the youngsters cared for there may have a Christmas present and a festive meal.
Our household’s Christmas preparations have all the time begun in earnest on December 1, the beginning of Creation, which additionally occurs to be my birthday. From this date on, Christmas bushes and decorations are on show, Christmas carols could be legitimately performed, and stacks of Julia’s wealthy Christmas cake begin increase. Funnily sufficient, the recipe for the cake was merely based mostly on an outdated Betty Crocker one, which Teta tailored to incorporate domestically sourced Palestinian elements, including further cinnamon and nutmeg, moist dates, fleshy dried apricots, and figs. All through December, Teta’s residence can be crammed with this Christmassy odor. Her oven was on nonstop—and the kitchen was transformed right into a mini manufacturing line for her desserts.
I do not know what number of Christmas desserts Teta would make every year, however it was rather a lot. Most have been devoured or handed out to family members simply earlier than Christmas. My principal process as an enthusiastic younger kitchen assistant was to cut the dried fruit after which coat the items in flour earlier than including them to the cake combine so they didn’t simply hunch all the way down to the underside of the baking tin. Typically I might even be trusted to put out all of the lengthy rectangular cake pans and line them with parchment paper whereas my grandmother and her common kitchen helper obtained the cake combine prepared. Lastly, because the desserts slowly baked, we’d sit expectantly within the kitchen, keeping track of them. When my grandfather got here residence from work, the irresistible aroma would all the time put a smile on his face.
These days, the Israeli state’s building of the segregation wall has marred one of many principal highlights of Christmas celebrations—the procession of church officers from Jerusalem’s Outdated Metropolis to the Nativity Church in Bethlehem. However after I was rising up, giant crowds of joyful Christians, principally from Bethlehem and the encircling areas, would collect alongside the path to welcome the procession, with the primary clusters at Mar Elias Monastery, on a hill on the fringe of town, and at Rachel’s Tomb, the place many notables would wait. As my grandparents’ home was effectively situated alongside the route inside Bethlehem, we’d congregate there within the entrance backyard on December 24 to greet the Roman Catholic patriarch who heads the convoy and watch the scouts and horses who accompanied him. My grandparents—who had shut relations with the church—have been all the time able to salute the patriarch of the day. After he had handed, we went inside for a grand lunch.
Within the weeks main as much as this occasion, the dialog would revolve round whom to ask to the lunch. My grandmother, the beneficiant hostess, hated to go away anybody out and all the time secretly invited further friends. She would additionally welcome those that had not been invited as we packed inside. By now, the exquisitely adorned Christmas tree can be prepared with presents wrapped for everybody in order that for us youngsters, this was all the time an exhilarating time. Regardless of in depth conversations among the many household about what our lunch ought to contain, the menu was often roughly the identical.
The appetizers have been invariably sfiha (meat-filled flatbreads), sambousek (crispy meat pies), kibbeh (spiced meat and bulgur wheat), and an area salad.
Then my grandmother would make what she referred to as “Oriental rice,” on which she lavished minced meat (floor meat), festive grilled chestnuts, almonds, and pine nuts. This may accompany roasted turkey and a roasted lamb shank in addition to her well-known glazed carrots. Some years, she would go for a complete roasted lamb filled with rice and meat. It was all the time an epic meal. On these events, lots of my family would shrink back from the top of the lamb, however Teta would reduce this and quietly serve it to these of us privileged to know the worth of the delicacy and typically to others who had no concept what it was. I might contentedly tuck into the mind meat, bone marrow, and every other elements of the lamb, leaving others to benefit from the leaner however, for my part, much less tasty meat.
I’m eternally grateful that I had such distinctive grandparents and that I used to be capable of spend a lot time with Teta Julia. She taught me about each Palestinian spice and herb, and most significantly, about Palestinian hospitality, the love of Bethlehem, and the significance of resilience.
Teta’s Christmas lunches, her pièces de résistances, would all the time finish along with her Christmas cake. We have been solely allowed to style it for the primary time on Christmas Eve. There was a ritual through which she took a cake out of the fridge, the place it might have been saved for 3 weeks, for us to slice it collectively. After a lot anticipation, that first style was all the time a memorable second.
After Teta Julia handed away, all the household was in denial, however Christmastime was the toughest, the time when her absence was most painful. It took me a number of years to comprehend that I may bake her Christmas cake and share it with the household in her reminiscence, as a tribute to her.
A wonderful Christmas Eve lunch would taper off reasonably than finish. Then we’d sit round, our stomachs full, sipping Arabic espresso, and our consideration would start to shift to midnight mass. Whereas a lot of the household can be heading to the Nativity Church, the scramble for the sought-after tickets, which had typically begun within the autumn, was off-putting for my grandmother. As an alternative, together with my grandfather and fogeys, she most well-liked to move to the chapel at Bethlehem College, one other eminent native establishment which she had helped to discovered.
