Our Fontanini Rustic Nativity Manger
is produced with wood. The Rustic Nativity Manger is approximately 13” at its peak, 16” wide, and 9.5” deep. This Rustic Nativity Manger is made of wood, bark, and moss. The main support of the structure is two wooden beams. One is in the middle while the other is on the right side of the manger. Upon those two posts are two more wooden posts, forming a fence. On the left side is a small fence, closing in the manger. The ground and wall is covered in abundant sphagnum moss. The trim of the roof is outlined in thick bark, while the roof itself is covered in moss.
Cycle of the Nativity Story:
For many of us Christmas means Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and the events thereon.
However there are a great number of events and stories which surround the Nativity of Christ. Some are accepted as the Gospel truths, others are a little dubious in the sense that they may have been subjected to later embellishments in the course of storytelling and translating; or simply that there were only fragments (tiny scraps of writings) which did not give a full enough text - such as the worthy Gospel of St Peter himself - to make them worth keeping in the New Testament. There were two main gospels which contained accounts of the Nativity. These were called the 'Infant Narratives'. The oldest is from the protoevangelium of St James. There is some basis for truth, and in fact the Eastern Christian Church accepts many of these stories as part of the old liturgy of the Nativity. But Western Christians have put them in the 'appocryphal gospels' (not to be confused with the Apocalypse!) ie, stories which might have a layer of legendary 'jam' between the sponge truths!)
Such stories enjoyed popularity right up the Norman invasion of Britain, which happened some time after the rift between the East and West Christians. Until The Norman invasion, Christian imagery tended to be very Byzantine in style, and the stories in the Nativity Cycle were often painted onto church walls as a visual aid to largely illiterate congregation. The Normans, with the blessing of Rome, set about destroying these images, because they were not Western, and a new order was evolved. However, as they covered all the old picture stories up with Limewash, they were all preserved rather than destroyed, so that today many restored churches in England have this wonderful old witness to the early stories of Christ's nativity for all to see!
Select the following link to view all of our wonderful Christmas nativity scene sets.
Select the following link to view all of our fabulous nativity figurines.