“For Here Was Born Hope”: Christmas and Easter in Bethlehem, 1955

Bill Syken — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 14:49:59 +0000

In 1955 LIFE magazine devoted its entire Dec. 26 issue to the topic of Christianity. The first section was focused to the heritage of the religion. Then came a series of stories about contemporary Christianity in the United States. And the final section had an international flair, concluding with a photo-driven piece on how Christmas and Easter were celebrated in Bethlehem, renowned as the site of the Nativity of Jesus.

Here’s how LIFE described the importance of Bethlehem:

In Bethlehem priests speak many languages, for this is a place sacred to Christians of all lands and groupings—Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant. Through the ages pilgrims have come here in reverence and love, for here was born hope.

The photo essay by Dmitri Kessel, who was born in Russia and handled many international assignments for LIFE, covered the celebrations of both Christmas and Easter. In addition to taking photos of the rituals of those holidays, he also captured images of young shepherds at work in the nearby hills. Those photos are particularly evocative because—setting aside the technological impossibility of it—the images look as if they could have been taken in the time of Jesus, imparting the feel of a history that is still very much alive. `

An aerial view of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, 1955.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Christmas celebration in Bethlehem, 1955.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Church of the Nativity (center) in Bethlehem, 1955.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In the Grotto of the Nativity, the sacred site of Christ’s birth was marked by a silver star on the floor, with a hole in the middle for pilgrims to peer through, 1955.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People looked through a hole in the Grotto of the Nativity during Christmas in Bethlehem, 1955.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Franciscan friar placed a figure in the manger during a celebration of Christmas in Bethlehem, 1955.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Christmas celebration in Bethlehem, 1955.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A shepherd stood in his field in Bethlehem, 1955.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Shepherds in Bethlehem, 1955.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A shepherd stood in his field in Bethlehem, 1955.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A camel near Bethlehem, 1955.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Easter in Bethlehem, 1955.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from Good Friday in Bethlehem, 1955.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post “For Here Was Born Hope”: Christmas and Easter in Bethlehem, 1955 appeared first on LIFE.

Easter in Jerusalem: LIFE Takes a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1955

Thu, 13 Apr 2017 09:34:59 +0000

More than half a century ago, LIFE dispatched photographer Dmitri Kessel to Jerusalem to observe the rituals that took place there as Christians of all stripes gathered to celebrate Easter and Christmas in the places most holy to their tradition. The resulting story, published in 1955 under the headline “Holy Days in the Holy Land,” focused heavily on the Christmas-in-Bethlehem side of things, as befitted its Dec. 26 issue date. But it was an image of Protestants from England and the U.S. at a tomb outside Jerusalem, the first image presented here, that won pride of place as the last photograph in the issue.

Although the rest of Kessel’s Easter photographs were not published at the time, notes filed in the LIFE archives make it possible to learn a good deal about his trip to Jerusalem. It was common practice at the time for a reporter, correspondent or researcher who would go uncredited in the final story to accompany a photographer on his or her trip. That person would file notes to someone at the magazine, who would use them to craft the language that went with the photographs. Those notes would then be filed away, most likely not to be consulted again, but archived for future research. These particular notes were bound for reporter Jane Wilson, who presumably wrote the photo captions that ran in the magazine, via George Caturani of the magazine’s foreign news service, from Mathilde Camacho of the Paris bureau.

“There were so many celebrations and so many ceremonies going on almost simultaneously during the Easter celebrations in Jerusalem, and so many communities involved that it is difficult to know which is the best way to set them down for you,” Camacho began.

She described the goings-on at the Latin Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Armenian church, the Coptic Church, the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Abyssinian Church and the Protestant Churches, witnessed during a long weekend of rites and celebration. Though her detailed captions are difficult to pair with the images after so many decades, they provide insight into the meaning of that time in that place for those people.

“Most of the pilgrims were really old,” she notes in the caption for a photograph of three elderly women from Cyprus who had come with a group of about 1,500 Greek Orthodox pilgrims, “and had been saving for years in order to get enough money for the sea fare from Cyprus to Beiruth and then either the air or the bus fare to Jerusalem.”

Those women, like so many others whom Camacho and Kessel met in Jerusalem, saw their voyage to the Holy Land as a crowning experience in a lifetime full of faith. The pomp and ritual seen in these images is, then, an appropriate reflection of both the joy and solemnity of the Easter season.

Original caption: “At Garden Tomb on Easter, Protestants from England and the U.S. hold services with Rev. A. P. Clark of London presiding and Dr. Billy James Hargis of Tulsa, Okla. (left of table) preaching. Many feel this spot outside Jerusalem more truly represents Christ’s tomb than the Holy Sepulcher inside the city.”

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Easter in the Holy Land, 1955.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Easter in Jerusalem: LIFE Takes a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1955 appeared first on LIFE.

Easter Photo Archives - LIFE

“For Here Was Born Hope”: Christmas and Easter in Bethlehem, 1955

Easter in Jerusalem: LIFE Takes a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1955