When I was a teenager, we had neighhours who were Roman Catholic. During the Christmas season, we children always went to their house to admire the nativity set up near the christmas tree. Weeks beforehand they were already excited, they could hardly wait for their mother to give the sign that they could go to the attic and get the box with the carefully wrapped figurines. Oh, how they looked forward to that time. They talked to us about it how exciting it always was to set up the display and have St. Joseph and Holy Mary and "our dear little Lord" right in their living9 room. I always admired the display but at the same time could not enter into it as the neighbourhood children did. I stood at the side; I had no part in it. For me, this belonged to the Roman Catholics and that was a totally different world from us Protestants. The Child in the manager was not "our dear little Lord" as the neighbours called him; to me He was the Lord Jesus. Not a figurine that could be picked up and handled and put back in the cradle.

In those days there wasn't a Roman Catholic family that did not have a nativity, simple as it may be. Usually Protestants didn't bother since it would remind them too much about images. Today things are different - times have changed and I have seen nativities in many evangelical homes. My thoughts go back to the time when our children were smaller. Every evening during Advent I would read a story to them about someone that had to do with the happenings around Christmas, in short, everyone that a part in the nativity. Each evening a cardboard picture about the person in the story was admired and added to what we already had. Sometimes we made it into a mobile, other

times we set it up as a nativity. For the children it was a time of pleasure, for what child does not like to listen to stories. It was also a time of education and together we grew toward Christmas.

In front of me is a picture book with nativities from several countries. Big ones and small ones, simple ones and elaborate ones. There is a nativity from Italy done in ivory and it is very delicate. A Mexican picture shows the stable and all the figures done in straw. Another picture shows Mary and Joseph made from gourds, and the Christ-child made from a very small gourd lying in a gourd manger. It comes from Uruguay. A nativity from Upper Volta (Africa) is made of mud and straw and the figures are made from clay and brightly painted. There are nativities in such a diversity I could never have imagined. They are carved from wood, miniatures and life-size; made from blown glass or roughly moulded clay; - but they all have one thing in common, and that is the adoration for the Christ Child.

The word nativity comes from the Latin word nativitas which means birth, especially with reference to the place where it happened. In our western world the Nativity is a theme in Christian art. It shows in whatever form of art, the new born Christ, the virgin Mary, Joseph, and other figures, as it is recorded in the Gospels and Apocrypha.

The nativity dates back as far as the fourth century when it was carved on an early Christian Roman sarcophagi (A sarcophagi is a stone tomb or coffin with an ornament, in this case the nativity, and is open to view as a monument.), and from then on used as decoration in early Christian Basilicas. For the early Christians it was a very important subject because through this form of art, it emphasized the reality of the incarnation of Christ. During this period of time, the Virgin Mary was given a new title, namely Theotokos, which means Mother of God (A.D. 43 1).

Some of the nativities show the mother of Jesus seated, emphasizing that the birth was painless, with the Child in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. One or two shepherds who enter the picture would symbolize that Christ came for the Jews. The wise men from the East symbolize the revelation to the Gentiles. The scene would not be complete without the ox and the ass, because according to the prophet Isaiah, "The beasts of the field will honour me".

In the late 14th century, an abrupt transformation appeared. The scene focussed on adoration. Mary no longer experiences the aftermath of childbirth, but kneels before the Child. Often Joseph also kneels in adoration, and the Child no longer is in the manger, but lies naked on the ground on a pile of straw, or on a fold of the Virgin's robe. During the 16th century, the Council of Trent outlawed the midwives, the ox and ass and the bathing of the Child. Minor changes were made after the 17th century and during this time religious art in general declined. The nativity however, remained an important theme in the popular arts.