MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
It's Christmas this week for tens of millions of Orthodox Christians around the world, who celebrate the holiday in January. In Lebanon, NPR's Emily Feng tells us the celebrations take on special significance this year.
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: Bells tolled across Beirut, and civil servants had the day off. Less than one-tenth of Lebanon's diverse society is Orthodox Christian. But in a country that loves Christmas, the Orthodox version is a public holiday.
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UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Singing in non-English language).
FENG: Here at the Beirut Armenian Apostolic Church, the faithful celebrate Christmas on January 6. Elsewhere, Orthodox Christians consider January 7 the true holiday - a divergence in dates due to the Julian calendar, used since the time of Julius Caesar, that the Orthodox faiths still go by.
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UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Singing in non-English language).
FENG: On the white marble steps of the church, George Gulesserian (ph) reflects on his parents' love story that brought him here to these very steps. His mother was actually born in neighboring Syria.
GEORGE GULESSERIAN: She was born and raised in Aleppo.
FENG: But while studying in Beirut, she met his father.
GULESSERIAN: They married here, and I was born there.
FENG: And so, like many Lebanese people, Gulesserian has family who live in Syria. On this Orthodox Christmas, he's thinking about them. They're part of the Christian minority whose future is uncertain under the new government led by an Islamist fighting group that just toppled the Assad dictatorship.
GULESSERIAN: They are watching, they are seeing, they are expecting, I mean, any changes, any negative changes.
FENG: Any changes that might suggest they could be persecuted. Gulesserian takes comfort in the Orthodox traditions that have survived for millennia. So did his church, though it was badly damaged in 2020 during a massive explosion in the Beirut port nearby. More than 200 people died, and Lebanon is still really struggling. Its economy is in tatters. Politically, it's in gridlock. And it was severely battered by a recent war with Israel. And yet Gulesserian is still here in Beirut, and the church is still standing.
GULESSERIAN: That's Lebanon, after all, you know (laughter)?
FENG: Somehow you always make it through.
GULESSERIAN: Yeah. Yeah.
FENG: But on this Christmas, he says he feels weary of the regional wars and the economic woes.
GULESSERIAN: It's a never-ending cycle, I think.
FENG: Yet this year, he says he's also affording himself a little holiday cheer.
GULESSERIAN: Let's hope this is the end.
FENG: Even if he does not quite believe in his own hopes.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Singing in non-English language).
FENG: Emily Feng, NPR News, Beirut, Lebanon.
(SOUNDBITE OF BEDROOM LOFI'S "BREATHING UNDERWATER") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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