When I was in St Elizabeth of Hungary parish in John Day, Oregon, back in 2004, I had a very small church, and we were limited with the amount of decorations we could display, but the Nativity or presepio in front of the altar, brought everything together, and which I insisted, should be the focus of the church, the birth of Jesus. Then during my Religious Ed classes, I introduced the children to the craft of crib-making, and even invited them to help them create one themselves. But since they were so eager and enthusiastic in seeing one that I made for myself, I came up with another idea which became a huge success. So I asked them if they could provide me with a base of plywood each and I would make a presepio with the figurines they brought with them. I had to see the figures, so that I would make the cave to scale. And I had a marathon of presepio-crafting, ending up with 18 in total. I did not have the glue they used in Malta, but I used flour instead, and worked just as good. I had collected some brown paper bags which I used to form the cave. I worked in the parish hall and a few people who came to check them out were mesmerized by what they saw – something which they’ve never seen before, because for them Christmas is all about Santa Claus, deer, snow and robins. People would just place the nativity characters on a table, and never bothered to create a presepio, so popular in other cultures.
All the children were delighted to have their own presepio, a custom which St George Preca insisted that all children should have. I know that many of them kept it from year to year, as they felt it was something special, just as they keep their Christmas tree ornaments and hang them up every year. Over the years I introduced other Maltese customs and traditions, which parishioners always welcomed. Meanwhile the church glistened with lights and we placed two Christmas trees, sprayed in white and with many little lights, which we placed one on each side of the tabernacle behind the main altar, and really looked quite nice. Christmas Eve and Day were very busy as I reached out to my two mission churches after I did my Masses in John Day. As usual I played Silent Night on the flute, with the congregation joining in the second and third verses, even accompanied by the organist. I also started another tradition by inviting the children, in preparation for Christmas, to place a piece of straw in the manger, when they do a good deed or are obedient at home. But all the children in John Day were delighted to have a Nativity of their own, and I wonder how many of them, 20 years later, are still being displayed.
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