As everyone knows, the nativity scene was created in the 13th century (1223) by St. Francis of Assisi in Greccio, Italy, ”the way he found to tell the inhabitants about the birth of Jesus in a manger”. From then on, it became a tradition that the Catholic world has cherished to this day, with the designation of Nativity Scenes, which, in children’s eyes, have become an image of tenderness and kindness, in addition to the Jewish-Christian lesson.
In São Miguel, as the Christmas season approached, it was obligatory to go to Mata da Doca to collect moss and coarse, red gravel or to the beach to collect shells that had spilled out onto the sand. It was always from December 8th, the Day of the Shop Window.
The clay doll, wrapped in newspaper and stored inside a cardboard box, was taken out of its confinement to receive the light and the hands that caressed it. It came back to life, and soon, the hustle and bustle of setting up the crib began.
The bran had been collected and dyed red, yellow, and blue. The little cardboard houses were touched up again, everything was back together so that everything looked new, and everything was made and distributed joyfully to children and adults alike.
Those days were days of socializing, problems were forgotten, and the only purpose was to build a little fantasy world, with the sweetest figure of Jesus as its central figure, in the delicacy of his tiny naked image lying on golden straw, in the company of his parents Mary and Joseph, gazing at him enraptured, surrounded by shepherds in bare feet, with their hands raised to heaven in praise of the glory of such an excellent Birth, there was a small poster above the grotto in small, childish letters, an angel holding it in his hands, saying: “Hail! Hail, O Elect of Christ! Messenger of peace and love
You are on earth the holy image of Jesus, our God, and Lord Alleluia! Hosanna and glory!
It was time to look at the building when everything was set up. As compensation, there was a table covered with a rented tablecloth, a bowl with some treats, and a bottle that exhaled the scent of a tangerine liqueur through the neck, which mixed with the smell of the cryptomeria tree, illuminated by tiny lamps that looked like stars flashing on a night with an imaginary blue sky.

Victor de Lima Meireles is a poet and artist living in Ponta Delgada.

Translated by Diniz Borges

From Presépios dos Açores