11/24/12 – Announcing the presence of angry vendors

Our first stop of the day was Nazareth and the Church of the Annunciation, the location where the Virgin Mary received word that she would give birth to the son of God.  Our tour group was invited to celebrate our own private mass there.  So there we were, 22 pilgrims celebrating mass on a grand altar while tourists walked in and out taking pictures of us.  While I have to admit that it was special, I was obviously out of my element.  I remained respectful and went through the motions until they began to offer the Eucharist.  I’d played along until now, but accepting it would be crossing the line and my father knew it.  He gave me a nudge and told me to cross my arms on my chest: the sign to the priest that I would accept his blessing but not the representation of the body of Christ.

With that gesture dad showed me that he had acknowledged my choices.  He may not have liked that I was an atheist, he may have even been praying for my return to the church, but at that moment he helped me out of an uncomfortable situation.

2nd guy from the right on the bottom is wearing glasses... at the time of Jesus?
Dad explained the the bottom of the mosaic represents the modern age.

After mass we toured the grotto, the supposed site of the annunciation, but the truth of the matter is that the exact location would have been “in the area” and not exactly where the shrine sat.  Parts of the grotto were littered with people’s letters of intentions…”wish lists” for the most part.  The ones I could read were a mix of “Thanks for…” and “Please give me…” with a heavy weighting on the latter.  All that was missing was a fountain for people to toss coins into.

As we exited the church we were approached by a sales paradox: Muslims selling Christian souvenirs.  And while there’s nothing wrong with that, especially because more than any group the catholic church knows that business is business it was disconcerting when the vendors became hostile when our group chose not to buy from them.  They then took issue with my photography and the fact that they were in my photos.  The rosary seller did his best to show me his “close talking” skills while asking me why I had taken his picture and what I was planning on doing with it.  I quickly dismissed him and his poor attempt at intimidation.

Shifty eyes on the left, ignorant aggressor on the right.

“If I’m taking pictures of my group and you don’t want to be in the picture then don’t talk to my group.”  I was lying of course, I was taking pictures of him and him only…but I didn’t feel like going over the details of limited rights to privacy in a public place.  That would have me the asshole instead of him for being hostile to a bunch of older pilgrims who had done nothing to him.

I walked directly towards him as if to walk through him; he stepped aside…discussion over.

The whole encounter seemed so strange to me but it made sense as I rejoined the group in a town square.  Looking up my eyes were met with two large banners declaring Christians to be “losers” since they did not worship Allah.  The Christian exodus from Nazareth and the surrounding region was nearing completion, most notably in the city centre.  How odd it was that the structure celebrating the annunciation was now in a clearly Muslim town; stranger still, a Muslim town with marked hostility towards the “losers”.  “Losers” who just happen to be the reason the town exists now, without tourism there’s nothing to sustain the place.