Sung to the tune of Greensleeves—“What Child is This?” is a beloved Christmas carol in the United States, whose lyrics were written in 1865. It has been recorded and performed by a long list of musicians and vocalists. This is one of my favorite versions, by Johnny Mathis.
What child is this?
Who meant to rest on Mary's lap is sleeping
Who angels greet with anthem sweet
While shepherds watch are keeping
The birth of the Christian Jesus of Nazareth “away in a manger” in Bethlehem is the subject matter of other carols, as is the story of witnesses who “traveled afar.” Material depictions in the form of a nativity scene, crèche or presepio have a long history throughout the Christian world, dating back to St. Francis:
… St. Francis of Assisi, who is credited with staging the first nativity scene in 1223. The only historical account we have of Francis’ nativity scene comes from The Life of St. Francis of Assisi by St. Bonaventure, a Franciscan monk who was born five years before Francis’ death. According to Bonaventure’s biography, St. Francis got permission from Pope Honorious III to set up a manger with hay and two live animals—an ox and an ass—in a cave in the Italian village of Grecio. He then invited the villagers to come gaze upon the scene while he preached about “the babe of Bethlehem.”
One well known, much viewed and visited crèche here in the U.S. is in The White House:
Each year since the first Kennedy Christmas, an 18th century Neapolitan creche has been on display in the White House. In 1961, Loretta Hines Howard, a noted collector of religious figures, installed the creche in a niche in the East Room against a backdrop of gold curtains. The individual figures - men, women, angels, animals, kings and cherubs depicted the Nativity scene arranged in a pyramid shape symbolic of the evergreen tree. In 1967 a permanent gift of the Nativity was given to Mrs. Lyndon Johnson and is part of the White House collection.
Contrary to the lying (and not Christian) remarks and behavior of the current occupant of the White House attacking the Obama family, former President Obama never banned nativity scenes, or “Merry Christmas” greetings—the subject of trumped up Fox Spews bigotry, attacks and smears.
Though refutations abound—wing-nut obsessions with a “War on Christmas” have been going on for decades. Snopes has a detailed history:
As far as we know, the term “War on Christmas” was coined by conservative author Peter Brimelow, whose race-based critique of U.S. immigration policy, Alien Nation: Common Sense About America’s Immigration Disaster (Harper Perennial, 1995), in many ways prefigured the white nationalist political movement of today.
From my perspective as a non-christian these days, who teaches global religion and religious history as part of anthropology curriculum, I find that far too many of the right-wing political stances taken around Christmas and the nativity are in direct contradiction to the basic tenets of faith embedded in the symbolism of Jesus’ birth.
My exposure to the pervasiveness of the nativity story started early in childhood—as it probably did for many of you.
When my family moved from an Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York, to the Borough of Queens the year I was in the sixth grade, it was the first time I lived in a New York neighborhood full of houses lit with Christmas lights and crèches on the front lawns.
Many of our new neighbors were Italian-American and they had presepi. Even though my dad was an atheist leftist and my mom was a non-practicing Presbyterian who had Catholic nieces and nephews, we did the whole Christmas tree and decorations ritual each year and sang carols. We had a small carved manger and cradle with a tiny baby Jesus, animals and Magi which were carefully unwrapped each year and lovingly put under the tree. Though not Catholic like many of my cousins (I became a Lutheran at the time) I did learn about saints. My two favorites were St. Martin de Porres (who was Blessed Martin when I was a child) and St. Francis of Assissi—Martin because he was a black/mixed race son of a slave who worked with the poor and Francis because of his vow of poverty and love of animals. It was not until I studied art history in high school and college that I developed an appreciation of nativity scenes in paintings and carvings and learned of St. Francis’ historical role.
The short documentary Nativity: Art and Spirit of the Creche explores some of the history.
There are times that creches in churches perform a real life functions for living babies, and animals.
DJ Williams was found in a Houston church's nativity scene in 1971 and asks investigative genealogist Pam Slaton for help.
Houston's Abandoned 'Manger Baby' Reunites With Family 44 Years Later:
On a balmy Wednesday afternoon in Houston, Texas, just a few days after Christmas 1971, two women found a newborn baby boy lying in a manger inside the St. Anne Catholic Church’s nativity scene.
“The Manger Baby,” as he came to be called in the press, seemed to be healthy, well-fed but abandoned, with only a handful of diapers, a blanket and some formula with him. He was taken in by a social worker and eventually adopted by a couple in Dayton, Texas.
Now, 44 years later, DJ Williams still has questions as to why he was left in a manger all those years ago and embarked on a mission to track down his biological family.
Newborn Baby Abandoned In Church's Manger Already Being Loved:
A bible story came to life in Queens this week. Jose Moran spent Tuesday morning setting up the Nativity scene at the Holy Child Jesus Church, where he is a custodian. Mr. Moran put up the manger, and went to lunch. And when he came back at about 1 p.m., he heard the cry of a baby.The baby was in the manger, swaddled in blue towels. He was so young his umbilical cord still sprouted from his belly.
Jose Moran ran to tell Fr. Christopher Ryan Heanue, who has been ordained for only five months. Imagine being a new priest, and told: there's a live baby in your manger. Fr. Heanue called 911. The baby boy was brought to Jamaica Hospital, where he was weighed—just over five pounds—and found to be healthy. Surveillance video reportedly shows a young woman enter the church with a baby in her arms, but leave without a child.
New York, like other states, has what's called a safe haven law. It permits parents to leave their infant in some safe place—a hospital, a firehouse, a church—without being charged with child abandonment. It opens a door in the law for parents who may feel burdened, overwhelmed, and unable to take care of their child to safely leave them, with some confidence that they will be found, cared for, and eventually taken in by another family.
Not just babies are found in mangers. (I admit to loving this story since we own a pit):
Whether or not you are Christian, of another faith, or atheist, this time of year the airwaves are filled with the sounds of carols, and nativity scenes dot our cityscapes.
Classic carols about the baby in the manger are constantly being reinterpreted for new generations—like this version of “Away in a Manger” by Pentatonix.
What are your favorite carols about the nativity?