The erection of replicas of the birth of Jesus goes back to Byzantine Empire, both inside the church, in the home, and outdoors. Here are some recent examples from around the world.
A crèche in an ice cave in Tomsk, Siberia.
Ice carvings in St Petersburg, Russia.
An illuminated Russian scene.
In an Iraqi refugee camp.
Fans of the French Revolution may be amused by this parody of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”
On the twelfth day of Thermidor my true love sent to me
Twelve months renaming,
Eleven bonnets rouge-ing,
Ten lords a-fleeing,
Nine Tricoteuses,
Eight papers *Presse*-ing,
Seven sans culotte-ing,
Six priests dismaying,
FIVE JAC-O-BINS,
Four guillotines,
Three French heads,
Two Estates down,
And a cap in a Liberty Tree.
The creator of this ditty was Adam Roberts. Dr. Rachel Gillett performs it in this YouTube video.
A number of European countries, particularly Germany and the Ukraine, tell folk tales about the role of the humble spider in Christmas. In one story with a number of variations the Christ Child changes the spider webs on the Christmas tree into silver tinsel. In another spiders delight the Christmas Child in the manger by spinning a web above him in the night; in another a poor woman’s family is enchanted by the spider webs on the tree which look silver in the morning sunlight. Because of these tales, it is said, an ornamental spider is often placed on the Ukrainian Christmas tree and the tree is decorated with tinsel.
