11 December 2012

Conferences

CHRISTMAS CYCLE

Symbolism in the traditional Spanish nativity scene

Mr. Ángel Peña Martín. Historian.
association de Belenistas de Madrid

The shepherds are made of clay, /
the kings are made of clay, /
the streams of glass, /
the mountains of cardboard. /
A star of orichalcum /
on a trembling wire, /
on the portalof the star /
star imitates the trembling of the sky. All around the people sing /
carols to the sound /
of tambourines and zambombas /
because the Lord is born.

In his poem Ante el Nacimiento (Before the Nativity), Manuel Machado offers us one of the best descriptions of a traditional Spanish Nativity of the 19th century, in which the language of symbols was so present, today practically lost, in order to achieve the most realistic representation possible, forgetting that nativity scenes were not conceived as a reflection of reality, but as an expression of an idea, that of showing the presence of God among men.

In the mid-19th century, the fuss of putting together the Nativity began in wealthy homes, at least in Madrid, on the day of the Virgen de la O, the eighteenth of December. The Nativity Scene was kept from one year to the next in crates, the opening of which was an almost liturgical ceremony in which the whole family gathered together to unpack the figures wrapped in newspaper, carefully padded with shavings and sawdust. Once the boxes were opened, the unusable was discarded, what was still usable was put back together again, thanks to a skilful application of glue or a discreet coat of colour, and the list of things to buy was made, with which the traditional fairs were visited, also as a family. Such as the huts of the births of the Genil in Granada or the fair that was held in the Barranco de Sevilla, on the banks of the Guadalquivir. In Madrid, people went to the Nativity Bazaar, or, in other words, to place de Santa Cruz, where, along with the numerous stands of figures from all over the country, they could find a large number of nativity scenes made of cardboard, paper, wood, cork and clay. Alongside these, other stalls offered, for the nativity scenery, bundles of moss, bunches of hay, bunches of laurel, kermes oak and pine trunks. In Santa Cruz you could also get the traditional snowy crags, which crossed paths of fine sand, along which the shepherds descended with their offerings and the Three Wise Men on horseback, followed by their retinue, heading towards the portal of Bethlehem. The more luxurious ones usually featured the windmill, whose blades turned, as well as the source with water features. 

In the provinces, the same enthusiasm was shared by improvised stalls, spinners and, especially, rag-pickers, who exchanged their figures for the unusable rags from the houses, which would later be sent to the weaving mills to regenerate fabrics, as well as rabbit skins. 

From the middle of the 19th century, these figures came out of the artisan workshops of Murcia, Granada, Malaga, Cadiz and Majorca, which, in order to survive during the rest of the year, were also dedicated to the production of traditional figures, bullfighting suertes and lances of the bullfight, as well as saints, images of the Infant Jesus, etc. 

Back home, with all the necessary elements, the construction of the Nativity began at last, a wild landscape of brown paper, cork crags, cork and cardboard houses, rivers of glass and, coming out of the mountains, the great star with its long tail that was to serve as guide for the Three Wise Men. And in front of the houses and on the slopes, the figures of the shepherds, the same size in the foreground as on the cima of the distant mountains and with the same rural attire through the sawdust of the nativity scenes as on the roads of our land. This anachronism in the clothing would be harshly attacked in the fifties of the 20th century, forgetting that these people of clay, who come and go in procession, go to the newborn, to pay him, with their offerings, the sacred tribute of their faith. 

In addition to depicting the most varied popular types, the traditional Spanish Nativity had a series of scenes based on the fusion of the Gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint Luke, which constituted a continuous narrative in which the main actors, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, to which the Christ Child would be added, appeared constantly and simultaneously. Thus, we could see them in the annunciation of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, the dream and doubt of St. Joseph, the visitation of the Virgin Mary to her cousin St. Elizabeth, the request for an inn, the Nativity, advertisement to the shepherds, the coming of the Magi from the East, the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt, the beheading of the Holy Innocents and the workshop of the Holy Family in Nazareth. 

Waiting for the arrival of the Messiah, in this symbolic world, were the figures of the hermits, as a representation of the solitude of the birth of the Son of God in Bethlehem, understood as a symbolic desert, far from society. portal Bethlehem, understood as a symbolic desert, far from society. The infant Jesus was placed in a cradle, the back of which showed the divine glory through a silvery cloud pierced by a beam of golden rays, adored by the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, kneeling and praying. 

Once the nativity scenes had been assembled, the invitations to visit began to be received. The lights, coloured candles from the bulk of the figures arranged along the paths, were lit from dusk until eight o'clock, the time of supper. 

Easter altars were the place for families to go to meeting during Christmas. On Christmas Eve, families would dine around the Nativity scene, in front of which carols were sung. This pious simulacrum, far from being a mere Christmas decoration, was the object of numerous customs that made it the centre of attention throughout the festivities. Among these traditions were the removal of the image of the Child Jesus on the day of the Holy Innocents, to prevent it falling into the hands of Herod; the slow, day by day, bringing the figures of the Three Wise Men from Herod's castle to Bethlehem, as well as the placing of the statues of the Magi in Bethlehem. portal of Bethlehem, as well as the placing, on the horse of one of the Wise Men, of small cloth saddlebags containing the letters to the Magi, in which the family's petitions were placed. 

When the festivities came to an end on 6 January, the ceremony of dismantling and putting away the Nativity Scene was just as ritualistic and careful as that of its return to the visual world. However, some children wanted these clay shepherds, bearers of the values of faith, to become their playmates during the winter. Their families, on the other hand, wanted the cycle to close according to the canonical dates and for the figures to be kept in protocol, so that, after eleven months of lethargy, they would awake again to be placed in the same places as the previous year, where they would also be the following year, God willing.
 

Manuel Picolo. Preparations. Engraved. Reproduced in The Spanish and American Enlightenment. Madrid, 15 December 1891

Mystery. Murcian workshop. Second half of the 19th century. Fired and polychrome earthenware

Birth. Author unknown. Early 20th century