At Christmas the Holy Land is jam packed with pilgrims and travellers that have come to celebrate one of the most important days in the Christian calendar. Here, in a humble grotto, we find a  14-pointed silver star on the floor of the cave where Christians believe Christ was born. There are three Christmas Eves here – one on the 24^th of December as celebrated by the Protestant and Catholic Churches, a second for the Greek Orthodox, Coptic (Egyptian) and Syrian churches and a third for the Armenian Church – at times 3 services can go on in the

Church at the same time but in different parts of the Church and, just to complicate matters even further, in different languages!! One really does wonder (with no disrespect to anyone) why we can never agree on anything, why we always believe that only we’re right about everything and why we refuse even to consider that someone else may have a point. Be that as it may, early in the evening, the Protestants will go out to sing Christmas carols and on Christmas morning, children will open their gifts before breakfast – after breakfast everyone will go to church and then the visiting begins. Catholics will wait for the priests to come and bless water from which the whole family will drink and for the Greek Orthodox congregation, Epiphany is very important. They have a special church service at which a cross is dipped into water to bless it – people will take the water home with them so that they can drink 3 sips before eating anything. At lunch time they’ll eat turkey, spiced with pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg and stuffed with rice, meat, pine nuts and almonds. This tomato salad is a favourite breakfast food and at this time of the year, probably a wise choice too.

TOMATO SALAD

Ingredients

• 6 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
• 1 each medium sweet red, yellow and green pepper, chopped
• 1 medium cucumber, seeded and chopped
• 1 medium carrot, chopped
• 3 green onions, thinly slices
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 tablespoons each minced fresh cilantro, parsley, dill and mint
• 60 ml lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons  Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed into a paste
• 1 tsp salt
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

• In a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, the sweet peppers, the cucumber, the carrot, the green onions, the jalapeno and the herbs.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients and pour it over the tomato mixture, tossing to coat evenly.
• Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour – serve with a slotted spoon.