[Faith-talk] Good Night Message for Friday, December 14, 2012

[Paul]

Hello and good day to you all, whether that day happens to be morning, afternoon or evening.  For us in the western hemisphere it's evening.  How was your day today? Mine was good, by God's matchless grace and His providential care.

This evening we have a very interesting article by Alicia Z. Klepeis, a writer living in New York, entitled "Nativity Scenes Throughout the Ages," rendered as follows:

At this sacred time of year, it can be easy to be disheartened by all of the commercialism surrounding us.  Holiday music gets piped into the grocery store in October and we haven't even carved pumpkins before online retailers try to hook us in with free shipping.  But once we begin those special four weeks of Advent, there are some meaningful traditions that remind us "Jesus is the reason for the season."

Driving by your local church, the center of the town where you live or even an impromptu visit to a friend's home in December, you are likely to see one of the most genuine symbols of the holiday season.  Not a tree, not a wreath. but rather a Nativity scene.  Some call them a creche, others a manger scene.  For all Christians looking forward to the celebration of Christ's birth, these scenes are reminders of the Bible passages of the magi's voyage, or Mary and Joseph and their difficult struggle to find accommodations before the baby Jesus arrived.  But do you know where or when the tradition of the Nativity scene originated? It is a lovely tale, one that harks back to 13th century Italy.

St. Francis of Assisi is the person credited with popularizing the Nativity scene as we know it today.  In the 1220's, he recreated the manger scene in the village of Greccio, Italy.  Real people and animals portrayed the biblical figures while St. Francis celebrated Mass before this scene.  Spectators were so inspired by this reenactment of Christ's birth that the custom spread throughout Italy and Europe.  Today Christians around the globe proudly carry on the tradition of living Nativity scenes.

St. Francis's Nativity scene eventually paved the way for the development of crib figures.  By the 16th century, many churches in Italy and Germany displayed manger scenes with handcrafted figurines.  Families began to make their own Nativity scenes to display at home.  These creches became more elaborate over time, sometimes including fancy backdrops, angels, animals, etc.  Even in modern-day Italy, passersby might glimpse a Nativity scene in a shop window made of pastry, fruit, or even butter! Nativity scenes came to the United States with German Moravian immigrants, who called their scenes _putz (after the German word for "Decorate").  And as they say, the rest is history.  One is never far from the words of Luke or Matthew when looking at a Nativity scene or watching a Nativity play.  Merry Christmas!

And there you have it for today.  However, there is a sidebar to this article entitled "Fun Facts About Nativity Scenes," rendered as follows:

1.  Want to know what your fellow Christians around the globe call their Nativity scenes? In Spanish-speaking Latin America, people might refer to a _nacimiento, _pesebre, or _portale, while in Portuguese-speaking Brazil folks call their manger scene a _presipio or _lapinha.  A German Nativity scene is a Krippe, after the word for "crib." And folks in the Czech Republic use the word _jeslicky.

2.  The largest Nativity is the Diorama Bethlehem in Einsiedeln, Switzerland.  Visitors to this scene will view Bethlehem's topography and hundreds of intricately carved figurines.  This Nativity scene depicts not only Jesus' birth but also the journey of the three kings, the message of the angel to the shepherds, and the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt.

3.  Looking for a holiday trip to really get into the true meaning of Christmas? Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, hosts a myriad of activities, from Advent organ concerts to carriage rides to (of course) elaborate Nativity scenes like the one on display at the Central Moravian Church.

And there you have it for today.  I hope that this article brought you new information about the Christmas season that you didn't know previously.  I knew the story about St. Francis, but didn't know the rest.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, throughout this night or day and especially in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul 



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