Merry Christmas...

Dec 25, 2018 12:53

...to all who celebrate, and happy holidays to everyone. The APs and I, as every year, visited the nativity scenes in many a Bamberg church. While one of my favourites inexplicably was gone (seriously, Carmelites, what was up with that? The church isn't being renovated, and there wasn't even a note explaining why there was no nativity scene at St. Theodore's?), the otherws were as beautiful as ever, and one made a comeback after several years of church renovation. As ever, I am happy to share.






The restored St. Martin's Church:




Its nativity, also restored:




High times in Bethlehem. Dad & self noticed that this year, there were far more poc figures than there used to be, as is very likely for Palestine in the first century.




Meanwhile, the nativity scene in our local cathedral is always only so so, but this year it had a detail I loved, to wit, this female Bethlehem traveller with her donkey:



The whole thing:



Some of the churches hadn't had their masses yet when we visited yesterday, and hence no babe in the cradle, but St. Jakob had:




What I love about the nativity scenes at St. Matern is is the inventiveness of so many nativity scene creators. Like this one, depicting the holy family during their flight to Egypt:




Many use the local Franconian scenery for background:






While others imagine the arrival of the Three Kings in action movie style:



St. Stephen's imagines the Three Kings decidely more low key:




St. Stephen always offers various scenes from Jesus' life in addition to the nativity on the same display, like here, Jesus at twelve in the Temple:




And the central scene:




But with St. Theodore being inexplicabily nativity-less this year, there's no question which church has the most beautiful and elaborate nativity scene of them all: Our Lady, the Obere Pfarre.

Overview:



Most of the figures are dressed up in Franconian style, but two Romans every year hold out. This time, they're in the background of the flower seller:




Someone's waiting for their big meal in Franconian Bethlehem:



While the stable is being renovated:



Every year, there's a small cat which the children have to discover, as it's put in a different place every time. This time around, it cozied up to one of the angels:







Spotted it yet?




While the cat went for the harpist, the Ringo Starr of angels is also depicted:



Perhaps my favourite detail this year - the mother and daughter with the broken pottery:







The church itself:




Which ends my pic spam.

Meanwhile, Yuletide has opened!

This is my gift, offering a wonderful depiction of one of my favourite s1 relationships, between Saru and Michael (spoilers for the entire first season):

Trust Yourself (1665 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Michael Burnham & Saru
Characters: Michael Burnham, Saru (Star Trek)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Complicated Emotions, Michael and Saru share so much trauma
Summary:
Love, Fear, Michael, and Saru.

Off to browse the archive now, in between writing thank-you mails for Christmas gifts....

This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1319574.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.

discovery, christmas, yuletide, star trek, pic spam

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