Merry merry

It’s the most replica-d time of the year

Christmas is a time for quasi replicas. In most churches, many schools and some homes you will find carefully crafted miniature stables without material referent.

Nativities, based solely on other nativities, attempt an authentic reconstruction of a moment in time which is known of the world over. You have seen the elements: the manger, the baby, his parents, the shepherds, the wise men, the angels, the cattle and the star. They rarely change.

This tableau originated in Bethlehem, now an occupied territory. The city appears to have been largely spared the insane wrath of Israel. Just a logistical siege, a few gas bombs and concussion grenades so far.

There was a story from December 7th in which the 2024 nativity at the Vatican included a keffiyeh as bedding for Jesus. The ten foot tall installation was conceived by a Bethlehem artist, who told the Catholic News Agency that the presence of the keffiyeh did not betoken violence, so much as a recognition of the work and existence of the 30 Bethlehem artisans who collaborated with him. So, Pope Francis prayed before this loaded scene, Then, in accordance with sacred tradition the infant was removed. It remains to be seen whether, on the 24th December when Jesus is set to be restored to the artwork, he will be accompanied by the contentious garment.

To say there has been bombing in Gaza is so inadequate for the scale of the destruction in that part of Palestine. To say that those bombs have been sold to Israel by the US and the UK is to conclude that either Biden and Starmer are biblically evil, or that, when they approve those sales, they experience a degree of cognitive dissonance which allows them to go about state business and yet tolerate their reflections every so often in mirrors.

Meanwhile the Vatican has to work out how to diffuse a bomb of their own making. Do they or do they not reinstate the keffiyeh? Which of the two other religions of the book do they outrage? How many catholics are looking for the Pope to once again call out this massacre of the innocents? And how many catholics would rather maintain indifference to the suffering of Palestine, reverting to the Islamophobia of the bloody Crusades? Or how many are in fact actual, real life anti-semites?

One thing is certain, peace on earth and goodwill to all people is unachievable right now. The photo above was taken in 2022 by a roadside in Goa, India. It was one of many such models, replicas in various sizes, and still faithful to exact stage directions. As we headed out to dinner in the vicinity of Benaulim beach, we found nativities everywhere, glowing sweetly in the 21 degree evening warmth. That was a very relaxed christmas, which seems as distant in time as it was in geography.

The replica conveys what gets called the true spirit of christmas: a miracle of humility and divinity. By some weird Christian juju each one resonates with aftershock from a real gathering two millennia ago. Every nativity refers to every other nativity and this network stablilizes (and indeed stable-izes) the meaning of this time of year for those who, despite everything, still believe. Enjoy the festive season, dear reader, despite the festive season.