2024Christmas - First Day Cover

Since St. Francis set up the first (live) nativity scene in Greccio in 1223, the birth of Jesus has been depicted countless times using all forms of visual artistry. From the first scene, set up as an ideogram (accompanied by bells and fires from the first Midnight Mass), the depiction expanded into extensive landscapes, ranging from those representing the Holy Land to those faithfully recreating, down to the smallest detail, the features of local hills and valleys, towns, and their streets. Small Bethlehem scenes and their figures were often the works of great masters and their workshops, crafted with expensive, time-consuming techniques and carrying a high price. The Baroque period especially favored these lavish, miniature theatrical scenes. The general fondness for theater was already evident in the seventeenth century in small paper theaters, where graphically printed figures were arranged for various themes. Among them were also scenes of the birth of Jesus – the first paper Bethlehem scenes, or their condensed form, the nativity scene. Such nativity scenes could be kept in homes even by those for whom the precious carved Bethlehem scenes were out of reach.