Nativity Scene

The Nativity Scene is one of the oldest and most beloved Christmas traditions, but do you know how it started and how it is called in other parts of the world? Today, we will discuss the Nativity Scene and its origins.


1. According to St Luke the Evangelist (2:7) Jesus was born in a stable or at least in a place where animals were kept. In fact the word presepio (Nativity Scene) comes from the Latin verb praesepire (to enclose, to hedge, to fence) and today it means manger or crib.

2. The Nativity scene is the French crèche, the Italian presipio, the German krippe, the Spanish nacimiento, the English crib, or the Filipino belen. A crèche is a three-dimensional artistic representation of the birth of Jesus. While focusing on the central figures of the mother Mary and the Christ Child, crèche artists often telescope time and place to bring together a host of earthly and heavenly participants - shepherds, animals, angels, wise men, and commoners.

3. The origin of the Nativity scene is often first ascribed to Saint Francis of Assisi, who in 1223 celebrated the Feast of the Nativity in a new way that led to a new devotional practice to convey the idea of Christmas to an illiterate congregation. It is believed that local shepherds, guarding their flocks outside the small Italian town of Greccio, inspired him. Saint Francis had real people dressed in biblical robes, and real animals positioned outside a cave on the outskirts of Greccio. In the manager was a life sized wax figure of the infant Jesus.

4. A creche traditionally includes two animals: an ox and a donkey. These were the two animals participating in St. Francis' creche because he wanted to allude to Isaiah 1:3 which states "The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master's crib; but Israel does not know, my people does not understand."

5. Most of the time, others tend to simply sit all the players out and leave them there for the whole Christmas season. However in many other countries like the Philippines, we add and remove characters based on the day. So for example, the manger should be empty until Christmas Day. The next day shepherds show up. But not until early January do the wise men show up (by which time the shepherds have returned to their duties). And the creche should stay up until February 2nd, which is the feast day of the Presentation of the Lord.