Paul Calvert spoke with Hanan Manoly, the City Manager from the Beit Sahour Municipality, about the history of the area connected to the Shepherd's Fields, how they will be celebrating Christmas this year, as well as good news stories and challenges.

Hanan: Not a lot. You can recognize them in Spring. There are sheep in the area. The Shepherd's Field area is the green area in the city so you can sometimes recognise the sheep in the area, especially at Spring.

Paul: You also have Mary's well. Tell us about that.

Hanan: It is one of the deepest and most important wells, which is located in the centre of the city. Jacob and Isaac who of course was the son of Abraham, is believed to have dug this well. It is said that Virgin Mary, while travelling to Egypt, passed by it and since she was thirsty she asked a woman if she would draw water for her. The woman was afraid and she refused, but the water in the well overflowed by itself. The cistern is famous for the sense of many miracles in addition to the site of a visitation by the Virgin Mary.

It is good to mention here that this is a place that is visited by both Muslims and Christians. It is visited by all the community. Here they believe in that story and they believe especially the sick people, or the people with special needs, or the people, they come usually to the well, they drink from the water of the well and they believe that miracles will take place if they do such things.

Paul: Is Beit Sahour mainly built on tourism?

Hanan: Yes of course. The most effective part in our local economy is the tourism. It constitutes approximately 40-50% of the local economy of the city. All tourism activities, hotels, restaurants, and also the hand crafts, we have approximately 175 olive wood workshops in the city and they are familiar in making olive wood, embroidery, and mother of pearl.

The problem is the poor producers usually face problems in marketing their products. This is our problem, but in Beit Sahour we have many hotels. The capacity is about 295 rooms in the whole area and we have 700 beds, which excludes separate houses where solidarity groups and individual people sometimes sleep in the houses.

We have many restaurants and the capacity is about 1600 person per meal at one time, which is considered to be a good number in the city. Also there are many annual events in Beit Sahour and the visitors and tourism and pilgrims sometimes come to attend these events.

The tourism industry in Beit Sahour depends on local industry, not only local, but also foreign industries. Nearly two million visitors visited the city of Beit Sahour in 2016.

Paul: Do you have special events at Christmas time?

Hanan: Of course it's the amazing time in the year. As I said, the majority are Christians and they celebrate Christmas time. There are many events, but the most important one is the lighting of the Christmas tree. This year it took place on 9th December. We have a lot of visitors, not only local visitors, but also from the Palestinian behind the green line. Usually we have 15,000 people at the event and also there are many festivals. There is the Beit Sahour Shepherd's Night, which takes place on the 25th, 26th and 27th of December. It's three days of celebrating; Dancing Dabka, cultural events and many other kinds of tasks.

Also there is Lamlama festival. Lamlama festival usually takes place and is funded by the municipality and the local organisation, it is called the Bethlehem Fair Trade Artisans. It's three days of bazaars, cultural events, Dabka (dancing) folklore and also there are many spaces for the local handcraft maker to take place, to sell their product. There is local food, local clothes and many amazing events, so you are all invited to attend these events with us.

Paul: How do Beit Sahour residents celebrate Christmas?

Hanan: Lighting the Christmas tree is the beginning of the start of Christmas. It's the start of the Christmas time, but there is also the 25th December, Christmas Day. Before the day, on 24th December, all of the people go to Bethlehem and walk along Star Street. They want to meet the Patriarchate who will have a mass in the Nativity Church. This is usually one day before Christmas Day. There is a march on 24th December; it goes from Bethlehem to Beit Sahour towards the Shepherd's Fields. Also still there are a lot of family visits at Christmas time; people go to the relatives and they spend good times with them.