I looked out my window and saw huge bonfires popping up on several different blocks throughout Ramallah with many people gathered around along with loud drums and bagpipes playing. My roommate, Maddie, and I went to see what all the commotion was about and asked a man on the street in Arabic what was going on. He simply replied, “It’s some type of Christian holiday today.” This confused Maddie and me because as far as we knew, we’d never heard of a holiday on September 27. After doing research and asking Palestinian Christian friends, I learned that indeed this was a holiday and tradition within the Christian Orthodoxy that celebrated when St. Helena found the “True Cross” and set fire to mountain tops to inform everyone.
Since this first incident, I have now learned that there are not only different dates and traditions for celebrating major Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter but that Palestinians embrace both Eastern and Western Christian traditions. For example, last weekend was the Western celebration of Easter, which was celebrated mostly in Jerusalem, and this weekend was the Eastern celebration of Easter in Ramallah. I was excited to take part in a wonderful tradition known as the passing of the holy fire. Where a fire is miraculously lit in the Church of the Holy Sculpture in Jerusalem and makes it way in the form of parades and festivals to other cities such as Ramallah, Bethlehem and around the world. It was such an interesting and lovely experience to witness how a holiday that I thought I was familiar with is celebrated so differently.
Ultimately, after reflecting on this experience, I can’t help but think that the more you see in this world, the less you know!
