First Nativity Scene Contest !
On December 13, 2022, The Latino Festival of the Berkshires, in partnership with Hispanics in Berkshires County, launched the first Christmas nativity scene, novenas and posadas contest. Six families joined this event with their creativity, love for traditions and community, opening the doors of their homes to share their culture and Christmas traditions.
Where did the Nativity Scene come from?
Saint Francis of Assisi is credited with creating the first live nativity scene in 1223 in order to cultivate the worship of Christ. He himself had recently been inspired by his visit to the Holy Land, where he’d been shown Jesus’s traditional birthplace. (1)
In Latin America countries locals decorate houses and children sing at each one until invited to a Posada party on Christmas Eve. You’ll see a huge number of nativity scenes, sometimes with lifesize figures. Mexico is also big on Epiphany on 6 January – tuck into a Rosca de Reyes or Three Kings Cake to find the hidden Jesus figurine.
In Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela the novena de aguinaldos is celebrated from December 16th to 24th. The event includes the singing of Christmas carols and the sharing of traditional Christmas snack.
Who were the Nativity Scene participants?
Jaime and Leonor from Colombia
They took 1 day to design and made their Nativity Scene using 100% recycled materials. The sheep are made of cotton, the houses are made of cardboard and toilet paper rolls, the rivers are made of aluminum, and the facades of the house are made of eggshells, roofs of the house have coffee. Moss, stones and even the trunks were brought from the street along with the large pine branch, in addition it has tarps and craft paper. Also, they made the novena with their family and tasted some delicious empanadas with homemade oatmeal.
Luz Maria Cambi from Ecuador
She used her natural plants in a 90% of her nativity scene. She brought the moss from the street along with some little doors. The branches that make the hut are pine branches, that day the whole house smelled like pine. In her novena she focused on Santa Claus and told the guests about his story. Thanks to Saint Nicholas she understood many things that happen at Christmas, she shared a novena similar the one in Colombia with her family and they tasted some delicious Ecuadorian empanadas, lemonade, rice and exquisite sweaty chicken.
Mari Carmen from Mexico
She loves nativity scenes and says that she has been collecting all the nativity scenes she has throughout her life, “she has quite a few”, it is not an assembled nativity scene as such but several small nativity scenes, the last one she brought from her hometown.
She explained us that in Mexico they used to do “posadas”. In the posadas a group that was outside asking the people to let them in because Jesus is about to be born and the group that is into answered as an innkeeper that is not place for them. At the end of each posada, they break a piñata full of candies for the children. She was with her little family and that night they tasted delicious tacos, Mexican tamales, punch and there were plenty of candies.
Claudia Villamil from Colombia
Claudia, her husband and daughter say that they took 5 hours to assemble the nativity scene. They collected stones, logs, branches and moss from the street, used craft paper and supported it with shelves from behind and designed it as if it were a steep mountain.
They made the novena with his family and made a contest of singing villancicos women versus men, and obviously the women won, the children were the jurors. At the end we tasted something traditional in their country, a delicious rice pudding, fritters, coconut custard and arequipe custard.
Carolina Ardila from Colombia
She decided to participate and borrowed this space to share her novena with the community and some families from Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador and Panama. The Nativity scene was made by these families and lasted 1 day, it is made of materials that they made themselves, moss that they brought from the street, sawdust, a box of fruit, craf paper, tissue paper, stones that they got on the street.
In addition, some beautiful children who decided to do the dramatization of the Angel, Joseph, Mary and the Child Jesus the Nativity scene was performed. The novena was held with several families and tasted some delicious miniponques, cookies, red wine and aguadepanela.
Monica from Ecuador
She made her nativity scene every year for the novena and sharing time with her family. The Nativity Scene was made of a synthetic mat but at the top she has a part with grass that came from her garden. Most of her dolls are made of wood and she has been collecting them over the years.
We hold the novena with her little family and friends. It was a very digital novena, everything was on YouTube and that night we tasted a delicious Ecuadorian chocolate with sandwich.
The Latino Festival of the Berkshires appreciates the time and effort that each of these families took to make this event possible. We hope in 2023 to count on the participation of more families in the second version of this contest.
The contest winners!!
In the first version of the contest, the restaurant “La Fogata” was our main sponsor. Thanks to this, the event had three winners in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. The judge was Natalia Beruzzio from Voluntiers In Medicine (VIM), who detailed the award criteria in the facebook life of awards on December 23rd.
First place went to Claudia Villamil who, according to the judges, met all the requirements established in the call for entries: a beautiful nativity scene, community and family gathering and a novel novena.
Carolina Ardila came in second place. The jury highlighted the union of the community with families from several countries to elaborate their nativity scene and make the novena and the participation of the children who will be in the future those who will maintain these traditions.
The third place went to Luz Maria Cambi, who was valued for her effort in the elaboration of the nativity scene and the family union for her novena.
