A Kastenkrippe is a small Austrian nativity scene made inside a box, with characters often made of baked clay.
In 1782 Emperor Joseph II, influenced by Enlightenment anti-Catholic attitudes, banned the display of large nativity scenes, especially in churches. HIs Christmas-loving subjects responded by building their own elaborate nativity scenes in hand-made wooden boxes, and displaying them in their homes during the sacred season. The Kastenkrippe) was usually set up in the “Lord’s nook” (Herrgottswinkel), a corner of the main room with a crucifix and a small altar. This also led to the blossoming of nativity scene construction in the village of Thaur near Hall in Tirol.
Here are three ornaments that I consider inappropriate. The first two come from American evangelicals who sometimes find it hard to concentrate on the details and importance of the Incarnation of Christ and the celebration of the Nativity. The third is laughably out of place for a different reason.
Literally “grandfather” or “forefather spirit”, the didukh is a sheaf of grain brought into Ukrainian houses at Christmas Eve to symbolize the unity of the family: the dead, the living and those to come. It is a remnant of pagan beliefs that the spirits of the ancestors guarded the fields in the summer and entered the house in the winter when the didukh was brought in. Made of the best grain of the harvest the sheaf was often decorated with flowers or ribbons or tied around the middle with an embroidered cloth called a rushnyk. Once inside, the didukh (perhaps about 4’ in height) was given a place of honour near the icons. It remained in the home until the eve of Epiphany when it was taken out and burnt and its ashes scattered over the fields or orchard to induce fertility in the coming year and free the spirits within.
Using this Romanian icon in yesterday’s post, we pointed out two figures who do not usually appear in Western portrayals of the Nativity: Salome and the midwife. Elsewhere in the illustration we can see those characters who are more familiar to us: the Magi journeying to Bethlehem, an angel announcing the birth to the shepherds, Mary, the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes, and the ox and the ass. In the lower left is Joseph — but who is the mysterious dude talking to him? That would be the Devil.
What is the Evil One doing in a picture of the birth of Jesus? He is there to tempt Joseph to doubt the story of Mary’s virgin delivery. Joseph, we know, was initially troubled by his betrothed’s news of her pregnancy but was reassured in a vision. Here, again, he has to overcome his suspicions and live a life of faith.
(Ch XIX, 3) And the midwife went forth of the cave and Salome met her. And she said to her: Salome, Salome, a new sight have I to tell thee. A virgin hath brought forth, which her nature alloweth not. And Salome said: As the Lord my God liveth, if I make not trial and prove her nature I will not believe that a virgin hath brought forth.
(XX. 1) And the midwife went in and said unto Mary: Order thyself, for there is no small contention arisen concerning thee. And Salome made trial and cried out and said: Woe unto mine iniquity and mine unbelief, because I have tempted the living God, and lo, my hand falleth away from me in fire. And she bowed her knees unto the Lord, saying: O God of my fathers, remember that I am the seed of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob: make me not a public example unto the children of Israel, but restore me unto the poor, for thou knowest, Lord, that in thy name did I perform my cures, and did receive my hire of thee. 3 And lo, an angel of the Lord appeared, saying unto her: Salome, Salome, the Lord hath hearkened to thee: bring thine hand near unto the young child and take him up, and there shall be unto thee salvation and joy. 4 And Salome came near and took him up, saying: I will do him worship, for a great king is born unto Israel. And behold immediately Salome was healed: and she went forth of the cave justified. And lo, a voice saying: Salome, Salome, tell none of the marvels which thou hast seen, until the child enter into Jerusalem.
According to the apocryphal second-century gospel, the Protoevangelium of James, Joseph went in search of a mdwife for Mary when it became time to give birth. He brought back to the cave two women, Zelomi and Salome, who were too late to assist in the delivery but who marvelled at the possibility of a virgin birth. Zelomi expressed her belief but Salome, doubting, wished to make an examination herself. For her impudence Salome’s hand was withered but an angel urged her to place it on the baby who at once healed it — the first miracle of Jesus. The two midwives were often portrayed in Nativity art of the Middle Ages until the Council of Trent discouraged it as non-scriptural. The two women continue to appear in Eastern Orthodox icons, as illustrated above on the bottom right.
This is a strange one. In 1860 the Illustrated London News published this full-page graphic depicting a future in which women dominated men. (The Leap Year tag refers to a custom whereby in every four years Victorian women were allowed to be more forward.) In the bottom left, a scene from 1960 depicts males as an extinct species. Other illustrations show submissive men or a fellow fleeing a crowd of women for a boat leaving for Australia. In the centre a Christmas scene shows a mistletoe entirely plucked of its berries, meaning the poor man has been exhausted from kissing so many young women.
A 1942 publication entitled Manx Calendar Customs makes the following observation about Oie’l Verrey:
On Christmas Eve, called in Manx, “Oie’l Verrey,” the Eve of Mary, a singular and interesting custom is observed, which attracts large numbers to the parish church for the purpose of singing carols (in Manx called Carvals) and which appears to be peculiar to the Isle of Man.
On this evening, the church having been decked with holly, ever greens, and flowers, after prayers the congregation commence singing their carvals, which they keep up with a spirit of great rivalry until a late hour. On this occasion the church assumes a brilliancy seen at no other time, for each person brings their own light, some of the candles being of large size, many of them formed into branches for the occasion, and adorned with gay ribbons. During the interval of the carols, parched peas are flung from all directions, the female portion of the singers having previously provided themselves with an ample stock to pelt their bachelor friends.
Alas, such a wonderful custom seems to have been abandoned by contemporary island folk. A traditional greeting for the season from the Isle of Man says:
Nollick Ghennal erriu, as blein feer vie Seihll as slaynt da’n slane lught-thie; Bea as gennallys eu bio ry-cheilley, Shee as graih eddyr mraane as deiney
A Merry Christmas to you, and a very good year Long life and health to the whole household; Life and joy to you living together, Peace and love between women and men.
Plygain is the pre-dawn church service on Christmas morning in Wales, the last surviving remnant of the pre-Reformation Sarum rite. It was customary for many to spend the long night waiting for the service in the company of friends and family singing and celebrating. The service was lit by special plygain candles and consisted largely of singing carols. Plygain was originally a Catholic ceremony but survived in the Anglican tradition as a replacement of the Midnight Mass when Wales converted to Protestantism; it was kept alive in the nineteenth century by Methodist churches. In Carmarthenshire people paraded through the streets with torches on Christmas Eve before the service. Plygain gradually disappeared for a time from most areas because of the rowdiness of many of the participants who had spent their time waiting for the service by getting drunk but the tradition has been revived in many parts of the country.
The name seems to derive from the Latin pulli cantus or “cock crow song” which suggests that carol singing was long a part of the custom, or perhaps from a Welsh word for “bending”, as in prayer. A related observance which survives on the Isle of Man is the Oie’l Verrey.
Christmas in Peru mixes the Spanish heritage of the country’s colonial past with the native American experience to produce a noisy, pious and colourful celebration. The season begins in late November with the opening of Christmas markets. Peruvians are devotees of the home Nativity scene and are always looking for new figures to add to the crèche or new backdrops and landscapes for the characters; carvings by the native Quechuans, in wood or plaster, are becoming sought after around the world. These crèches are set up in churches and homes and can become quite complex as pieces are added every year.
During December fairs and festivals are common, with music heard in the streets played on native instruments such as the harp, Indian flute or whistle. Peruvians have have adopted the traditional villancico or Christmas carol and made it their own, singing them in Spanish or in native languages. Popular carols include “Allegria, Allegria en Navidad” (“Joy, Joy at Christmas”), “Vamos Pastores” (“Let’s Go Shepherds”) “Chillín, Chillín Campanilla” (“Bells are Ringing”) and “Rueda, Rueda”:
Rueda, rueda por la montaña Blanca luz de sol. Rueda, rueda la buena nueva Que nació el Redentor. Rueda, ruedala buena nueva Que Él y nació.
Roll, roll down the mountain, White light of the sun. Roll, roll the good news That the Redeemer is born. Roll, roll the good news That He is born.
As in all of Latin America Christmas Eve is the time for the family dinner and the midnight church service. Turkey is usually the main dish with papas a la Huancaína, a potato salad or tamales. Paneton fruit cake and chocolate will be for dessert with champagne the beverage of choice. Noche Buena is the night when children open their presents and see what Santa Claus has put in the stockings placed by the crèche. At twelve o’clock the image of the baby Jesus will be placed in the manger and fireworks will continue long into the night.
From Christmas to Epiphany Peruvians will continue to celebrate. There will be bull-fights in the cities, processions, more fiireworks, dances and parties. High in the Andes in the Huancayo district native miners hold the exotic Dance of the Beasts and Birds complete with masked dancers and animals they have snared to populate the manger scene in the churches. On January 6 Peruvians keep the old custom of the King’s Ring, the rosca de reyeswhich contains a surprise hidden within.
The German religious reformer (1483-1546) is credited with a number of Christmas innovations and certainly altered the course of Christmas history
Legend says that Martin Luther, inspired by the starry sky on Christmas Eve, was the first to put lights on a Christmas tree. He is also said to have been the first to put a small crèche under the tree. The Christmas carol “Away in a Manger” was attributed to him. The first two of these claims are extremely unlikely while the third is utterly false. Luther however did play an important role in the development of Christmas in other ways.
Unlike other Reformers who broke away from Rome in the sixteenth century, Luther was by no means willing to shed Christmas as a popish invention. He loved the holiday and continued to celebrate it all his life. He wrote five Christmas carols; the most famous, “From Heaven Above”, was probably written for his own children. Some of his finest sermons were delivered at Christmas time and were devoted to making the Nativity real in the eyes of his listeners — Luther described what Mary lacked at the birth in Palestine in terms of what might have been found in a German home; he described the distance from Nazareth to Bethlehem as being that from Saxony to Franconia. He spoke to those in his congregation of the predicament of the Holy Family in the stable:
Think, women, there was no one there to bathe the baby. No warm water, nor even cold. No fire, no light. The mother was herself midwife and the maid. The cold manger was the bed and the bathtub. I am amazed that the little one did not freeze. Who showed the poor girl what to do? Do not make of Mary a stone. It must have gone straight to her heart that she was so abandoned. She was flesh and blood, and must have felt miserable — and Joseph too — that she was left in this way, all alone with no one to help, in a strange land in the middle of winter. Her eyes were moist even though she was happy, and aware that the baby was God’s Son and Saviour of the world. She was not stone. For the higher people are in the favour of God, the more tender they are.
There are some of us…who think to ourselves, “If I had only been there! How quick I would have been to help the Baby. I would have washed His linen. How happy I would have been to go with the shepherds to see the Lord lying in the manger!” Yes, we would. We say that because we know how great Christ is, but if we had been there at that time, we would have done no better than the people of Bethlehem….Why don’t we do it now? We have Christ in our neighbor.
Luther also played a destructive role in his attitudes toward Christmas. He was an opponent of the cult of saints at a time when Christmas was rife with the presence of saints and their holy days. He criticized the veneration directed toward the Magi and sneered at their relics in Cologne which he had seen and which he said had no claim to authenticity. As late as 1531 he mentioned St Nicholas as the Gift-Bringer and the one to whom German children looked when putting out their stockings, but in the long run his attack on saints led to the replacement of Nicholas by the Christ Child and, later, the Weihnachtsmann as the nation’s supplier of Christmas presents.
