Nativity display opens in Louisville Dec. 1-4

On the first Christmas, in a bed of straw, on handwoven cloth, warmed by the breath of animals, lay what many believe to be the greatest gift man has ever received.

All over the world this holiday season families pull out miniature figures that represent their own connection with the miracle of what happened on that star-lit night.

For four days, Dec. 1 through Dec. 4, more than 200 nativities collected by around 25 area individuals, will be on display in the old Henderson Chevrolet building located at 231 W. Broad Street in Louisville.

The display, arranged by The Louisville Garden Club, will include a wide variety of nativity scenes from all over the world, from more mass-produced toys children actually play with to large, one-of-a-kind museum-quality pieces. In addition to several classic Italian and northern European-created nativities, there are others from Native Americans, several from various countries in Africa, from different countries in Asia.

“There’s even a children’s nativity with penguins from the South Pole,” said Hulett Kitterman, the garden club’s president and one of the organizers of the event. “The really cool thing is you get to see the artists or each person, how they see themselves in that story, how each culture sees themselves in the Christmas story.”

The nativity scenes displayed will be in all different sizes and made from a variety of materials, some from newspaper, others from straw, some from clay and still others from wood.

“They’re made from everything you can think of,” Kitterman said. “It’s really fun to see them all together like that.”

Bill Cain, pastor of the Louisville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, has been collecting religious art for years. The first people who began celebrating the birth of Christ in the third century at the Bascilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, which was built over the site that tradition holds to be the birthplace of Christ.

By the fourth century images of the Christ child in the manger, Mary and the wise men began to appear in illuminated Bibles and frescoes. Francis of Assisi is credited with the first restaging of the nativity.

“He took a village in Italy and the townspeople came out dressed in what they deemed would be appropriate clothing to help teach the story as well as bring adoration to the Lord through their efforts. That’s where we go the first iteration of what we would consider to be the manger scene.”

The first reference to a private nativity scene appeared in a 1567 inventory from a Celano castle where the owner listed his possession of 116 crib figures.

“Around Naples, Italy these figures really took off and became an art form in the 17th and 18th centuries,” Cain said. “The kings and their wives would employ the finest figures and that’s where the crèche figures we know of today come from.”

The French word crèche for manger eventually came to represent the entire first Christmas scene, including all of the figures traditionally associated with it today.

Manger scenes today come in every shape, size and style, from the most ornate to the incredibly simple.

Kitterman said that while many people seem to like the more traditional representations of the nativity, she personally likes the more abstract ones. Regardless of the style individuals most connect with, each of these displays helps people celebrate that gift made over 2,000 years ago.

“I didn’t think of collecting them until I was an adult, but they do all tell this story in so many different ways,” Kitterman said. “One I have was (Wadley’s famous folk artist) Willie Tarver’s. I call it The Flight to Egypt. He told me I could call it that, but it’s really his grandmother, Ophelia, carrying him on the donkey, though. But even so, that’s the same story in his life, his grandmother carrying him in the same way Mary carried Jesus on the donkey, fleeing Herod. It’s the same story told over and over again in every culture, in every time period. To me it makes it all very personal.”

Tickets, $15 for adults, $5 for children 10 and younger, are available in advance through the Chamber of Commerce at (478) 625-8134 and will be available at the door. Each ticket includes a chance to win a nativity and will cover the full weekend of displays.

The display will be open Thursday, Dec. 1, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Dec, 2 and Saturday, Dec. 3, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and Sunday, Dec. 4 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The garden club will use all proceeds from this event in its many ongoing community beautification projects including an active landscape plan for the courthouse lawn, Jefferson Hospital’s garden and parks throughout Louisville. Queensborough National Bank and Trust is sponsoring the event.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Nativity display opens in Louisville Dec. 1-4