The country's largest collection of nativity sets is online, featuring many of its nearly 1,000 creative, diverse and nontraditional sets — also called creches — representing cultures from 51 countries on six continents. The University of Dayton's Marian Library-International Marian Research Institute houses the collection. Many sets can be viewed at their website.
The Marian Library's collection of contemporary sets includes styles, settings and media as diverse and individualized as the heritage, vision and interpretation of the artists who created them. While all contain the central figures of Joseph, Mary and the infant Jesus, visitors will also find polar bears, armadillos and flying camels as well as traditional sheep and oxen. Shepherds and wise men have been joined by mariachi musicians, cooks and toy makers.
The sets vary in size, color scheme and complexity as well as “attitude” — while some are evocative of the solemn and holy setting of the Christmas event, others lighten the message with humor. Some incorporate earthen elements such as gravel, foliage, cork, bamboo and moss to create natural landscapes; others use household items such as bread, wax and clothespins to set the scene. While traditional mangers abound, the Christ child can also be found in forest, desert, mountain top, cave, a Swiss chalet and the center of a Mexican village. Settings range from shadow boxes to gourds and bread bowls.
As the figures and settings evolved with the influence of region, culture and time, whole new stories were interwoven with that of the birth of Christ, said the Rev. Johann G. Roten, S.M., director of the Marian Library-International Marian Research Institute. “They all have this powerful message, that Christ is born for all for us, at any given time, no matter [what] color or culture. The Christ child is a magnet which attracts people from all walks of life. They all bring gifts of gratitude, visible and invisible, and converge on him who gives them faith, hope and love for God and each other.”
The Marian Library set out to amass its collection of varied cultural interpretations of the nativity in 1994. The undertaking, managed by the library's Creches International committee, is designed to promote the study and understanding of culture and religion, as well as the Christmas story itself, Roten said. With 988 sets on hand so far, the library has created a permanent display that is open year 'round and features a selection of complementary pieces that are rotated on a regular basis.
Creche historians credit St. Francis of Assisi, so often depicted in illustrations surrounded by animals, with using live animals and people to first recreate the birth of Jesus in a nativity scene in early 13th-century Italy, Roten said. Handcrafted replicas started to become popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, when they were promoted by the Capuchin, Jesuit and Franciscan orders in Italy, France, southern Germany and Austria. Missionaries brought the sets to other countries where, eventually, the figures and landscapes took on native ethnic and cultural features.
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