Families all over the world set them up at home, some as a pious devotion, others as a seasonal decoration
There won’t be a manger scene in Manger Square this year. Bethlehem’s civic authorities judged festive Christmas decorations to be unsuitable for wartime. That’s a pity, for the manger — or nativity scene, or crèche, or crib — is one of the most beloved Christmas traditions, and this year marks its 800th anniversary.
St. Francis of Assisi conceived of the idea in the little town of Greccio in 1223. Manger Square is called that in part because St. Francis made manger scenes so popular.
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Families all over the world set them up at home, some as a pious devotion, others as a seasonal decoration. Whatever the reason, the centre is the manger, the feeding trough — think of manger, the French verb “to eat.” Long before Christians began to think of Holy Communion — the bread of life, the Body of Christ — the manger was there for the baby Jesus. And Bethlehem, too, which means “house of bread.”
The manger scene is set up with an empty manger. All the other figures are arranged. The figurine of the baby Jesus is only placed in the manger on Christmas itself. It’s a good lesson. Everything can be set up ahead of time, but the empty manger is a reminder that until Jesus comes, it is not complete.
A manger scene without Jesus is to focus on secondary things and neglect primary things. Throwing out the baby but keeping the Bethlehem is to empty Christmas of its principal identity and purpose. The placing of the baby Jesus in the manger — often done by the youngest child at home — is a powerful way to keep Christ in Christmas.
On Nov. 29, 1223, while in Rome, St. Francis received approval for the “Rule” of his new religious order, which in time came to be known as the Franciscans. The approval of the “Rule” was an essential and landmark step, but Francis was worried about the institutionalization of the spirit he desired to foster in the friars. So as he made his way back from Rome to Assisi, his thoughts turned to the humility of Bethlehem at that first Christmas.
He had been a pilgrim in the Holy Land earlier, and when he reached Greccio before Christmas 1223, he was struck with an inspiration. How could he share with the local townsfolk the simplicity of that first Christmas, the hardship of the Holy Family and the wonder of the shepherds?
He had a few of his fellow friars recreate the scene in a local grotto. There were no statues or figurines — there had never been a nativity scene before! It was a living scene, complete with live animals.
The giant nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square this year marks the octocentennial by including three of those original friars — and St. Francis — alongside the statues of Mary, Joseph and the animals. Some observers may well wonder why the “three kings” are dressed so roughly.
The friars and the villagers worked together and, it is recorded, Francis found it as he had envisioned when “the day of joy” came: “The manger is prepared, the hay is carried in and the ox and the ass are led to the spot.… Out of Greccio is made a new Bethlehem.”
Four years ago, Pope Francis travelled to Greccio to issue an apostolic letter — “Admirabile Signum,” or “Enchanting Sign” — on the “meaning and importance of the nativity scene … which encapsulates a wealth of popular piety.”
“Children — but adults too! — often love to add to the nativity scene other figures that have no apparent connection with the Gospel accounts,” wrote the Holy Father. “Yet, each in its own way, these fanciful additions show that in the new world inaugurated by Jesus there is room for whatever is truly human and for all God’s creatures.
“From the shepherd to the blacksmith, from the baker to the musicians, from the women carrying jugs of water to the children at play: all this speaks of the everyday holiness, the joy of doing ordinary things in an extraordinary way, born whenever Jesus shares his divine life with us.”
It is not mere folklore tradition that dresses the Holy Family and their visitors in the local costumes of the place, or even goes so far as to make the figures appear ethnically Korean, or African, or Inuit. It is a theological point. Jesus, the Word made flesh, the God-man, has united Himself to every human person, every nation, every culture.
The Christian imagination has no trouble portraying the Holy Family in the guise of cultures never seen in first-century Bethlehem. It makes a biblical point — after all, were not Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem because a census of the whole world was decreed? The variety of nativity scenes shows that the whole world was, in fact, present. St. Francis expressed that 800 years ago.
To all my readers this past year, including those gathered around the manger at home, warm wishes for a blessed Christmas!
National Post
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