Italy’s Living Nativity Scenes
Re-enacting the Night in Bethlehem Recalls St. Francis of Assisi
Throughout Italy, the holidays are observed with scenes of the first Christmas, but in some towns living people replace statues and the scene takes on a life of its own.
Nativity scenes are a common sight in towns and cities throughout Italy. Usually set up about December 8, they remain until after the Feast of the three Kings, Epiphany, of January 6.
Such scenes originated with St. Francis of Assisi in the 13th century. St Francis created the first crèche scene, all accounts agree to that. But the details differ greatly from one account to the next, some claiming the figures were effigies, others that real people played the roles of the Holy family.
The most credible story is recounted by St. Francis’s biographer, Thomas of Celano, a contemporary and follower of the saint. Although Thomas was not in Italy in 1223, he was there shortly afterward and would have gotten his information from the Franciscan bothers who were present at the scene. Thomas describes the saint’s original nativity scene as a simple straw-filled manger with a live ox and donkey, and no figures at all. The manger, he states, became the altar for the Christmas Mass.
Whatever their origins, nativity scenes, precepi, have since taken the form of statues in most places. But in some towns these static scenes of wooden or ceramic figures take on even more meaning as live tableaux or pageants -- presepi viventi, where local people perform the roles. They are usually staged on December 23--26, and often again on January 6.
Each town re-enacts its own version. In Abruzzo, Rivisondoli’s living nativity scene includes hundreds of costumed people dramatizing the arrival of the Three Kings on Epiphany. In the tuscan town of Barga, on the evening of December 23, more than 100 costumed people form a procession behind Mary and Joseph, walking through the town asking costumed tradesmen for lodging. The procession ends at the main square, where a star guides the arrival of the Wise Men.
At Custonaci, in Sicily, the scene is set in a cave. A tiny town is reconstructed (an actual town was here once, but buried by a landslide) as the setting for the live tableau. In the Piemonte, Schierano stages a torch-lit pageant of the first Christmas Eve, with townspeople in costume. Elesewhere in the Piemonte, both Cessole and Maranzana include representatives of the ancient trades and professions in the Christmas Eve pageant, then everyone joins for hot spiced wine, cocoa, grappa and roasted chestnuts.
The three Ligurian towns of Calizzano, Diano Arentino and Roccavignale all celebrate with presepi viventi with costumed local people playing the roles, as does Celico in Calabria. Although larger cities are less likely to stage these, Milan does have a procession with the Three Kings walking from the Duomo to the church of Sant'Eustorgio on January 6.
Although these are local religious observances and not performances for the amusement of tourists, visitors are warmly welcomed at all of them.
