As
the tradition of the Nativity Scene is so important to the Spanish I decided to
write about one more belén related thing, the live Nativity, or belén viviente.
In the days coming up to Christmas there were a few of these open and I went to
see one with my students.
Belén
viviente basically means that people can go and visit the scenes of the Birth
of Jesus and the working lives of the people of Bethlehem at that time. This
custom originates from the 13th century from Italy when Saint
Francis once celebrated Christmas near a convent in Italy. He prepared a
living representation of the Birth in a cave by using an ox and an ass. As it
was very cold they put a doll in the crib instead of an actual baby. It got
very popular and in the years after it spread all over the country then to
Spain.
We
went to see my first belén viviente in a small building next to a church in the
outskirts of Seville. They only let a certain amount of visitors in and the
event was popular so we had to wait a bit. Even the waiting was full of events
as one of my student´s family had arrived and they wanted to join us but there
were two girls already waiting behind us in the queue. We agreed to let the girls
go in in front of us so our group can visit the belén together. All this
happened in a very Spanish way, everybody was speaking at the same time (that
to me sounded like arguing but they were just pleasantly chatting) giving a
range of ideas how to solve the problem. To me it felt like standing in the eye
of a hurricane. Eventually the girls went ahead and we waited a bit more for
our turn.
It
was like stepping out from modern Seville and into the town of Bethlehem 2000
years ago. They decorated everything very well and while we listened to the story
from a loudspeaker (in Spanish but my students translated the main things) we
watched as children act out the scenes for us. The place was small and the
rooms a bit dark so I couldn´t really take very good photos but I hope you can
still see what it was about.
Mary
sitting at home.
Joseph
has arrived.
They
even had a real lamb!
The
Angel tells Joseph that Mary´s pregnant and the baby is not his.
A
market in town.
Some
more 'workers'.
Scientists.
The
Baby has been born!
The
Three Wise Men. Everybody took a photo with them so we had to have one, too. On
my right there´s Claudia, Rocio and Noelia.
We
missed Penelope from the first photo so she had one all for her.
I
found the whole experience very interesting. If you have a chance to see one,
don´t miss out on it!
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