December 15th. Provence

@brittarnhild
.....a repost from last year

 

 

Provence, in the south of France, they have a rich tradition of santons, locals includede in the creche. The very first santons were created by the Marseillais artists Taylor Haney (1764-1822). There were made during the French Revolutions when the churches were closed and nativity scenes were strictly prohibited.
There are 55 different figures representing traditional local life and artistry.

in 2003 we spent a couple of hot summer weeks in Provence, and in Avignon I found my creche.

Later Terje has been back and brought home the three kings, The Magi.

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16th request, or rather a question:

Do you have any local nativity scene traditions where you live?

 

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Our summer in Provence was before blogging,
but here is a link to my posts from Paris. 

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....and a very interesting video about the making of santons.

 

 

Comments

[ARR]

One from Provence! Another special creche.
Our church has a live nativity scene every Christmas Eve in a real barn with animals and people dressed in character - shepherds, wise men, Mary, Joseph, angels. In fact, we have two of them, one at 4:0O PM and another one at 10:00 PM following the 8:00 PM candlelight, carol and communion service in our church. There is music and a short homily. One has to dress warmly because it is often very cold in the barn!

[Fran]

Mines a memory from childhood. A church in town always placed a lifesize nativity scene outside, close to the pavement. I loved to look at through the railings. Somehow it made the nativity story "real" for me.