All creches great and small
In a small, and very old, corner of South West France Advent, Christmas and the Epiphany are celebrated in a festival of the crèche – the manger and stable which provided the setting for the birth of Christ.
In and around the Girondine village of Castelmoron D’Albert many householders display creches in the windows of their houses and the village churches house further examples which are sourced from around the world. This year there are creches from assorted regions of France as well as from Russia, China, Peru, Greenland, Kenya, Cuba, Burkina Faso and many other countries. The tradition is now 17 years old and is organised by a committee of just 12 people. The creches are made using a huge variety of materials and are all sizes – the smallest is the size of a duck’s egg, while the biggest is life size. They are fashioned from clay, wood, stone, dried grass, plastic (there is a Playmobile crèche), eggs, corn-on-the-cob (yes, really), paper, fabric, knitting, soft toys……and they are displayed in windows, doorways, the corners of gardens and purpose build display cases throughout the village. The exhibition started on December 18th and ran until January 1st, with an extra day on Sunday January 8th…. which is also Epiphany Sunday.
Epiphany sees a crèche of a different kind in the neighbouring village of St Ferme. Here there is an Epiphany service with a “crèche vivante” in the village’s 12th century abbey. The crèche vivante features live animals (I have been to the service several times and have seen donkeys, cows, chickens, pet rabbits) and villagers dress up as the characters who feature in the nativity story. Every effort is made to include as many members of the community as creatively as possible; to such an extent that on at least one occasions the post lady has ridden her bicycle down the aisle waving a letter to deliver the good news about the birth of Christ. The service is conducted in Occitan, a language which was still in regular use in this region in the 20th century, but which is fast disappearing. It starts at 11am – check with the village’s mairie for more details.
