Where's the Jesus?

This past weekend, Dave & I went shopping for a "nacimiento" or a "birthing" scene (otherwise known as a Nativity scene or a Creche scene in the U.S.). We specifically wanted one made locally and one whose members looked Mexican.

We thought it would be easy. We thought wrong.

Dave and I walked confidently to the downtown shopping district near our house (most of our guests have shopped there for cheap locally made handicrafts). Our first shocker - how many of the nacimientos were really ugly. One had pink faces! I asked someone why, and they said that Mexicans wanted a "light skinned" nativity scene to look like what North Americans would have in their house. (Right, bc Jesus looked like me.)

Second shocker - there was no Jesus!!! I thought that the small Jesus was hidden safely away from small hands, but when I asked, I was told over and over again that the set didn't come with a Jesus bc most families already had a Jesus. Really?? If they have a Jesus, why don't they have the rest of the pieces?

So, we walked from store to store, asking "Tiene un juego con el Nino?" do you have set with Jesus? No, we were told, over and over, as we went from store to store. I sort of felt like we were on our own "posada" or traveling, like Mary & Joseph, from one place to another, until we found room for the Christ Child.

Finally, we did find a store with only Jesuses (no joke). All shapes and sizes. And nothing that looked anything like the Nativity sets we had seen. We found out that because of the candlemas celebration in February (stay tuned, I'll explain later) most families have a Nativity set with a HUGE Jesus and that Jesus gets passed down from generation to generation. Also, many families put out the nativity set without the Jesus at first and then add the Jesus on Dec. 25. (we do that in my family, too)


seriously, look at this Jesus! He's bigger than the sheep! We did NOT buy this one.


We finally did find a complete set, with a Jesus the right size, and everyone looking Mexican.

Third Shocker - there are no sheep in the set. The set has an Angel, Mary, Joseph, 3 kings, two shepherds, and 2 donkeys (sometimes also a Jesus). There are no donkey keepers, but there are two donkeys, and there are no sheep, but two shepherds. Also, the shepherds don't look like shepherds. One is a woman carrying a large water jar and the other is a man carrying a bundle of sticks. I wondered aloud what they were doing and Dave suggested that the woman was bringing water to help with the baby and that the man was bringing sticks to light a fire to boil the water. Boiling water almost always happens in old-time movies with birthing at home, right??

I asked the woman who made our set what the woman with the jar of water was called, and she said she didn't know, but everyone called them the shepherds. I told her that we didn't have female shepherds in our sets in the U.S. and she patted my hand and gave me a sad look that seemed to say, "I know that you pagans/ athiests don't understand about Jesus, but that's not really my fault".

*sigh* sometimes I wish I spoke less Spanish!