f you are displaying a set of carved or painted nativity sets every single Christmas and during Christmas, you’re taking part in a tradition that has been going on for centuries.
If you’ve got a display of decorative or sculptural Nativity display (or creche) this Christmas, you’re being part of a precious holiday tradition that goes back many centuries. Explore the long-standing tradition of Nativity creches.
Tradition
The legend has it that Saint Francis from Assisi set up an early creche when the Nativity scene was actually a live stage that included a manger, an ox, and a donkey, all in the context of a Christmas Eve Mass he planned when he visited the town of the mountains of Grecia.
St. Bonaventure wrote of his evening in the life of St. Francis, “A certain valiant and veracious soldier, Master John of Grecio, who, for the love of Christ, had left the warfare of this world, and become a dear friend of this holy man, affirmed that he beheld an Infant marvelously beautiful, sleeping in the manger, Whom the blessed Father Francis embraced with both his arms as if he would awake Him from sleep.”
Nativity at Christmas
When the first nativity story was created, the tradition became popular and spread widely. Within a century, virtually every church in Italy such as, for example, was a part of the tradition. As time passed, statues instead of live people and animals were used, which ultimately led to the nativity displays at homes that have become present in Christmas celebrations today.
Creches may not be historically accurate since they portray both shepherds and their fellow Magi who are in the manger shortly after Christ was born. However they do mention that according to the Gospel of Matthew suggests that the Magi were able to travel with the star towards Jesus’s place of residence for an entire year following the birth however, those who believe in the gospels get their inspiration from the popular characters of the Christmas story all of them gathered in one place.
There are many experts to believe the oldest creche in Italy is a collection of marble figures located inside Rome’s Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore and is believed to be the work of the artist Arnolfo di Cambio The statues are dated a couple of times from 1284 until 1289.
It is the French area of Provence is renowned as the area where artisans craft saints (little saints) miniature clay figures that are hand-crafted. Like elsewhere, nativity-themed home scenes have been very popular in this area of France however, they are typically elaborate and made of costly materials, making them too expensive for the average family. At the time of the French Revolution, they were even banned outright.
The year 1797 is when Jean-Louis Lagnel began to create a set of nativity scenes made from clay, which made them available to everyone. Later on, in the 20th century, Therese Neveu started the practice of firing clay figures in order to boost their strength which led to the creation of the santons that we see in the present. The Musee du Santon et des Traditions de Provence is home to one of the largest collections of Santons. In addition, it is where you can view the world’s smallest creche, which is ascribed to the Guinness Book of World Records with 39 santons to be precise.
Tomas Kryza
The Guinness Book of World Records mentions the creche invented by Tomas Kryza (1838-1918) as the world’s largest of its kind. The stocking weaver of Jindrichuv Hradec in the present day which is now located in the Czech Republic, Kryza spent 60 years creating the extravagant display, which has 1389 characters of human beings as well as animals. Kryza began by creating the Nativity scene, and then in the years to follow he expanded the creche which is now an art museum in Jindrichuv Hradec that also includes additional Biblical themes as well as scenes from everyday life in the 19th century.