i didn't grow up in a religious family. we had the soundtracks to both jesus christ superstar and godspell, but that is where i got most if not all of my information about christianity. now, my dad is quite the athiest, and my mother, in recent years, has introduced
ben
to her "grandmother" at the dinner table, while pointing emphatically to a gravy boat.
whether or not there is a god, or souls may be transfered to the gravy boats of their one-time owners, is a different knitting project entirely. but not to get off topic. we didn't have a lot of religion in my house, but at christmastime, we had this:
i don't know where it came from or that it was significant to anybody except myself. i really loved it. i loved that little baby. in that lizard-mind that you have when you're a kid, where everything you admire must be YOURS, i used to surreptitiously (i thought) try to pry this baby out of the manger with my finger. i wanted to hold him. my mom would always catch me and tell me to stop.
i put this little manger out at christmastime now, but i have always wanted a nativity set of my own. i am always fascinated by how different they can be, and how they reflect the tastes of their owners.
it's important for me to say first -- and get the jump on any well-meaning whistleblowers -- that this was hardly an original project. in fact i copied it out of something i saw for sale in a catalog last year.
that crèche was wooden, not knitted, but numerous elements have carried over to mine: the genderless, faceless nature of the figures; the traditional blue "garb" of the virgin mother; the lack of crowns or other trappings of status on the wise men; the ambivalent classification of the "animals". i didn't want an angel in my nativity, so i don't have one -- now it's complete in its secular humanism.
and i have only one animal. it's a very bottom-heavy sort of loch-ness-llama.
i also made three wise men, and they are bearing gifts.
ben and i were a little mystified to see how the joseph and mary figures appear to be leaning into one another lovingly, and in fact looking down at where the baby will be. totally unplanned, but rather uncanny.
some people put their baby jesus out when they put their whole set out. some wait until christmas morning. i like waiting until christmas morning. that's what my dad (the athiest) does with his (very nice carved wooden) nativity set -- he always waits. so we're going to wait too.
check back on christmas day!