I do this at this time of year, less because Christianity is my religion--more because it's my culture. It's what I know.

As you can interpret a single tradition in all kinds of ways, you can arrange the standard characters in a nativity set to suit your particular idiom. You probably do it unconsciously.

I think of nativity scenes arranged by lapsed or practicing Catholics as tending to have the Mary figurine very close to the infant Jesus--if she's a kneeling figurine, so much the better--while Joseph stands slightly to the back.

Protestants I fancy as liking their nativity scenes with the Mary and the Joseph figures standing an equal distance from the manger. High-church Protestants like a space between the Mary and the Joseph that appears almost spontaneous, maybe with one of the figurines in profile. As you move across the Protestant spectrum--becoming more literalist as you approach Protestant evangelicism--the Mary and Joseph are closer to each other, and to the manger. They seem almost to hover over the child.

Adherents of Eastern flavors of Christianity, as the Greek Orthodox tradition, tend to arrange their Wise Men asymmetrically, and to integrate them with other figures, to create a tableau vivant effect. Western Christians, on the other hand, prefer their Wise Men in a strict triad, generally removed some distance from the Holy Family, as the farm animals are removed from the family, and often to the other side.

I don't know if anyone has studied this formally. I think someone should.
7:46:27 PM    comment []