Christmas Nativity Spain E-Book

Cristina Berna

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

This little book shows you some of the nativity scenes we have seen and some of the figurines and accessories that you can find in the various Christmas markets. We visit Barcelona, Malaga, Sevilla and Madrid, but there are interesting and important local traditions in many other Spanish owns and villages.

Leseprobe

About the authors

Cristina Berna loves photographing and writing. She also creates designs and advice on fashion and styling.

Eric Thomsen has published in science, economics and law, created exhibitions and arranged concerts.

Also by the authors:

World of Cakes

Luxembourg – a piece of cake

Florida Cakes

Catalan Pastis – Catalonian Cakes

Andalucian Delight

World of Art

Hokusai – 36 Views of Mt Fuji

Hiroshige 36 Views of Mt Fuji 1852

Hiroshige 36 Views of Mt Fuji 1858

Joaquin Sorolla Family

Joaquin Sorolla Painter

and more titles

Outpets

Deer in Dyrehaven – Outpets in Denmark

Florida Outpets

Birds of Play

Missy’s Clan

Missy’s Clan – The Beginning

Missy’s Clan – Christmas

Missy’s Clan – Education

Missy’s Clan – Kittens

Missy’s Clan – Deer Friends

Missy’s Clan – Outpets

Missy’s Clan – Outpet Birds

Vehicles

Copenhagen vehicles – and a trip to Sweden

Construction vehicles picture book

Trains

American Fire Trucks

American Police Cars

American Fire Boats

American National Guard

and more titles

Contact the authors

[email protected]

Published by www.missysclan.net

Cover picture: The Holy Family, nativity at Real Casa de Correos, Madrid

Inside: The Annunciation to the Virgen, nativity at Real Casa de Correos

Content

Introduction

Short history

Spain

Barcelona

Malaga

Sevilla

Madrid

Introduction

One of the wonderful traditions of Christmas is the Nativity. But you don’t have to be Christian or a regular church-goer to love these wonderful displays. The creativity and artistry speak to all children and to the child in us all.

Nativity is a scene from the stories of the birth of Jesus. They are in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. With inspiration in these stories you use either figurines or live people to create the scene and convey the story.

These scenes excite especially the children. Their happy smiles and their joy is so wonderfully rewarding. But adults as well enjoy both creating and looking at the nativity scenes.

This has developed into a huge handicraft industry in countries like Spain and Italy. Artists and craftsmen work all year round to create their next exhibits, which are sold especially at Christmas markets.

Families collect figurines and accessories from the markets and create their own displays at home. Churches, beginning with the Vatican, and cities and other institutions create their own annual exhibits that are venerated and celebrated.

This little book shows you some of the nativity scenes we have seen and some of the figurines and accessories that you can find in the various Christmas markets.

Nativity is today a Catholic tradition, separated in many countries from official society as Christianity does no longer have the same central function, although the European values and norms are deeply steeped in Christianity.

In Northern European countries the birth of Jesus is no longer the central theme of the Christmas displays.

We show you some alternative displays, usually with animals, that are used instead to make the children, and adults, happy. Mostly they are in shopping windows and displace for a while the display of some of the commercial goods that is the daily function of the windows.

Cristina and Eric

Short history

Saint Francis of Assisi is often credited with being the first to create a live nativity scene, in 1223. He did it to promote the worship of Christ. He had come back from The Holy Land, where he had been shown the traditional birthplace of Jesus. The scene was so popular that it inspired communities throughout Catholic countries to stage similar pantomimes.

The nativity tradition thus started in the late Middle Ages in Italy. Italy is still one of the countries with the strongest nativity traditions, although of course “Italy” back then was not quite the same as it was under the Roman Empire or what it is now.

Nativities spread to most of the then Christian world.

The Middle Ages is a long historic period in Europe starting abt 500 AD with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and lasting to abt 1500 AD when the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery took over.

Caravaggio (1571–1610): Nativity scene with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caravaggio-Nativity(1600).jpg

Catholic Christianity ruled most of Western Europe in those days – and religion very much organized everybody’s lives back then.

The Welcoming of Christ the Child at the beginning of the four Sundays of Advent that ends with Christmas Day, which is the 25 December is one of the most important celebrations in the year.

Catholicism came to dominate Western Europe as The Roman Empire disintegrated. Catholicism is the teaching of the Bishop of Rome – there were five bishops in the early Christian World, and the Bishop in Rome became the Pope.

The Roman Empire was divided in two by Diocleatian in 284 AD. He believed the empire was too large to rule for one man and created the tetrarchy – a four man rule – with two rulers in the west (Maximian and Constantius the Pale) and two in the east (himself and Galerius).

Convinced of his own success he abdicated and soon the tetrarchy collapsed.

Mosaics in the Hagia Sophia, scene: Maria as the city saint of Istanbul, detail: Emperor Constantine the Great with the city model. School of Constantinople (Istanbul), mosaic in the southern vestibule, pendant: Emperor Justinian I with a church model of Hagia Sophia. Approx. 1000 AD

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Costantino.jpg

Constantine eventually restored order and became emperor in 305 AD and was the first Roman emperor who converted to Christianity.

In Europe the border between the Western and Eastern Roman empires was made up by the Sava river and parts of the Drini river that flows into the Sava river, today part of the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

Emperor Constantine who ruled until 337 AD is known as Constantine I or Constantine the Great. He re-founded Byzantium as “New Rome” until it became Constantinople.

Constantine promoted Christendom heavily and is often called the first Christian emperor. He called the first council of Nicaea in 325 AD which produced the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed affirms the doctrine of the holiness of the Son together with that of the Farther, the co-holiness of Jesus together with God.

The Eastern Roman empire was created 11 May 330 AD, and continued until 1453 AD, when it fell to the Ottoman Turks. The Byzantine empire was the most powerful economic, cultural and military power in Europe for the most of the thousand years it survived the fall and disintegration of the Western Roman empire.

Western Europe forgot almost all about the Eastern Roman empire even though Byzantine had lands in Italy for a long time and all the accumulated wisdom and knowledge as Western Europe sank into barbary and ignorance.

The first university in Western Europe was founded in Bologna, Italy in 1088 AD, more than 500 years after the collapse of the Western Roman empire to the invading Frank and Germanic tribes. Most people had no inkling about what was going on in Byzantine or what treasures of knowledge and wisdom was kept alive there, like in the field of law.

The great emperor Charlemagne, 2 April 742 AD – 28 January 814 AD, is an important beacon in Western European history and culture. He unified most of Western and Central Europe through almost continuous military campaigning during his reign, only to create the chaos that has plagued Western Europe since his death, by dividing his empire between his three sons, roughly into France, Germany and Italy.

It can not be emphasized enough just how important the Catholic Church was for the reorganization of Western Europe after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

The church provided order and security after the chaos. It took care of the spiritual needs of the people and became a powerful political force, which it can be argued was later to become a burden.

However, by its powerful political influence it had influence over the powerful secular rulers, whom it could excommunicate and effectively make outcasts and then potential victims of other rulers that could take their lands.

The monks and nuns devoted their lives to prayers and good deeds and thereby founded the traditional European norms and values.