Christmas Eve among Christians in Anatolia and the Middle East: at the cradle of tradition in the face of extinction Introduction: At the historical homeland under the pressure of history Anatolia (Turkey) and the Middle East (Levant: Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine/Israel, Iraq) are a region where Christianity originated and took shape. Today, Christian communities here are rapidly shrinking ancient minorities, preserving unique, often non-Chalcedonian traditions. Their Christmas Eve is not just a religious holiday, but an act of cultural and ethnoconfessional survival, where the ritual becomes a code of memory and resistance to assimilation. The celebration takes place in conditions of political instability, emigration, and often direct threat. Community Landscape: mosaic of ancient churches Orthodox (Antiochian, Jerusalem, Constantinople Patriarchates): Greeks, Arab Orthodox, small communities in Turkey. Old Eastern (non-Chalcedonian) churches: Armenian Apostolic Church (Armenia, diaspora in Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq). Syrian Orthodox Church (Jacobites) and Syro-Jacobite (Syria, Turkey). Coptic Orthodox Church (Egypt, but historically associated with the region). Assyrian Church of the East (Nestorians) and Chaldean Catholic Church (Iraq, Syria, diaspora). ... Read more