What is a 'persepe'? And what it reveals.

Hi all. So, we have been in Italy at Christmas time, and it seems like Christmas in Italy is spread out over all 12 days, and then lingers into the end of January where it gradually starts to disappear. We hear from our hostess in Assisi that Christmas trees are very new in Italy, didn't really happen until the 90's. They do happen now, especially publicly, with really pretty gigantic trees shining in the central square of a town, which is good for travelers trying to orient themselves. The trees were surrounded by Christmas markets and live music and sparkly things, and night time festivals, usually near an ancient crossroads marked by a Roman column.

But what there were MANY more of than trees were the Presepes. This is the traditional Italian thing, the Nativity Scene, or Manger, or Crèche, or Crib, depending on where you are from.

We probably have seen 500 nativity scenes since we've been here. They seem to be taken very seriously, are everywhere, and are of all shapes and sizes. Our hostess tells us that in homes, the 3 kings move a little bit each day of Christmas, not arriving at the manger until Epiphany, January 6. And the crib is empty until the baby appears on the 25th of December.

We saw them in every church and chapel, in every public square, in art collections by local artists, in shops and restaurants, and in Assisi in almost every town window, crevice or space, made of all kinds of materials.

In Assisi the Nativity is special because the legend is that they started near here, in the town of Greccio. The word is that this was an inspiration of St Francis (uh, one of many), who loved Christmas and said that even the Poor Brothers should celebrate and eat two meals on that day. Anyway, he was in Greccio, and was like, you guys! Let's set up the church like the manger! Bring in straw! No, I am totally serious, let's get farm animals in here, real ones! Who's got a baby? We need to be reminded of the birth of the Savior! Do it, people!!! So it started there.

This is a sweet story and makes sense, and it's also refreshing because there is a lot of the crucified Christ in the Churches, and in the Francis story. Very moving and beautiful, but it is nice to spend a moment in the joyful and generative moment of the manger.

I also love what both Nikki Giovanni and Jeanette Winterson say about the Nativity, that it puts a woman at the center of the story, a woman doing a very common biologically female thing, having a baby. That's why both these feminist writers love the Nativity, and Giovanni suggests that she would prefer wearing a manger on a chain around her neck rather than a cross, but that would mean everyone would have to deal with Mary in the starring role. More interesting stuff to be said about this, but that's another conversation. I want to describe the incredible Presepes we have seen:

One in a window, made entirely out of brightly colored plastic bottle caps. Another out of coffee creamers, with little silver winged angels hanging by thread.

A tiny one in between two bricks of a street wall, the figures no bigger than olive pits.

Huge ones in churches, lots showing an entire town, with automated figures that move, plowing, fishing, baking bread, all ignorant of the little scene in the stable that you have to look carefully to find. These are arrangements that are maybe 10 feet across or more. Our favorite was in Spello in the back of a church with a night sky full of stars on a timer, so the whole scene dimmed and then lit up as "days" passed in the town.

Ok, then there are life sized ones with pretty creepy mannequin figures dressed as the central characters. These are sometimes in public squares, or hidden in people's garages with signs that say "Presepe" with an arrow inviting you to come and look. The most amazing was arranged around a pond with real ducks.

The other incredible life-sized one was in Gubbio, and was about 7 blocks wide, with figures arranged down streets, around a river, and in houses, doing every conceivable job that might have been done at the time, including weaving, weapon-making, doing laundry, scribing letters, and working for the Roman census.

Many cool ones by contemporary artists also, my favorite being a large board where tools of the time were mounted in an abstract display with a baby doll smack in the middle.

Wow, there are so many more. We have pictures. But I will end with what happened today in Assisi. There was a pretty large life size mannequin one in front of the Basilica on the grass. Not too fancy, but a big wooden manger and lots of figures. We've been looking at this a lot as we've been here a couple weeks.

Today, as we move into January, they took it down, moved the kings and the baby Jesus back to storage, swept up the straw and dismantled the manger. This revealed a sculpture that is there the rest of the year, but we had not seen. It's by a local artist and is a mounted figure of a knight, slumped and dejected in the saddle, the horse dejected also. It's an image of failure, the knight in armor who left with high hopes of glory, returning in defeat and despair. It's part of the Francis story, as he returns from a dream of joining the crusades after falling ill and being told in a vision he should serve God instead. Despite the mysticism, he returns weak, lost, and being thought a coward. The sculpture that had been hidden by the Nativity perfectly captures this.

The story of a mystical birth passes to reveal the figure lost and dejected, having failed. He rides back into town and faces the huge and beautiful Basilica, a testament to the monumental story of love and humility that Francis has embodied through history and to this day as you can see as pilgrims (from all over the world) wait in the rain to visit his church.

- JT