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Ld silver-gilt, straw and cork. Height of Joseph, 15". PER aE Ai Mery Ch Here's hoping everyone, everywhere enjoys a very happy holiday! ROSS DUFF LTD. BLACKSTOCK Nativary Grove, Mary and Joseph attributed to Salvatore di Franco: Baby Jesus to Giuseppe Sammartino. Polychromed terracotta, wood, fabric, tow and wire, Italian t Neapolitan) 2nd half of 18th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Loretta H. Howard. Sending Greetings The custom of exchanging greetings at holiday time is older than Christmas. The custom of the Christmas greeting card, however, is a relatively new one. Christmas cards originat- ed about 125 years ago, in England. Despite this re- cent start, printed greetings quickly caught the public fancy and are today one of the most popular forms of Christmas holiday traditions. * * * Israeli Project Creates Biblical Zoo A grassy 10,000 acres in the Negev, 25 miles from Eliat, has been transformed into a veri- table "Noah's Park" call- ed the Hai Bar which, in Hebrew, means wild life preserve. Breeding herds of. most of the 120 ani- mals mentioned in the Bible have been collected. and pastured here. Let joy enter your hearth and home. Thanks for your support. Crest Hardware Nativity Creche Art Dramatizes Story Of Birth Of Christ According to legend, remnants of the manger at Bethlehem were brought to Italy by early Christians. Sorit is not surprising that some 1300 years later, St. Francis of Assisi should have chosen to renew its spirit and meaning in the hermitage of Greccio in the Umbrian mountains. "I desire to represent the birth of that Child in Bethlehem in such a way that with our bodily eyes we may see all that He suffered for lack of the necessities for a new- born babe, and how he lay in the manger between the ok and ass." His friend, Giovanni Vellita, proceeded to carry out these instructions, setting up a life-size manger with straw and a live ox and ass. Members of the community posed as Mary, Joseph and the shepherds and a wax figure of the Christ Child was placed in the manger. A great throng assembled to worship at the site on Christmas Eve 1223. Many songs and hymns were sung, and so impressive and awe-ins yiring was the ceremony, that Greccio assumed the fame of a second Bethlehem as the news spread Merry Christmas Best wishes of the season, friends, and grateful thanks. Werner's SERVICE CENTRE far and wide. Inspired by St. Francis, artisans and craftsmen began to make miniature manger r scenes for the Whole families fashioned the little figures from wood or clay and created replicas of Bethlehem, as they Imag- ined it would look. Often these scenes looked more like their own villages than the Holy Land. In Naples, these creches developed into a fashion- able art because of the in- terest of the Bourbon King Carlo III, who set the pace by the elaborate settings of the Nativity scene, which he had set up in his castle every Christmas Eve. The members of the court took up the hobby of their king and soon all the great Neapolitan families were vying with each other to produce brilliant and lavish creche displays. They em- ployed the talents of the best sculptors and the lad- ies of the great houses fre- quently made elaborate clothes of velvets and sat- ins for the figures. The most outstanding of these figures were produced in the workshops of Naples during the second half of the eighteenth century. The Metropolitan Museum has a large collection of them, which are usually on dis- play during the Christmas season. Most of these are from the famous collection owned by the great Neapoli- tan Catello family. The figures, an average -of 12 to 18 inches in height, have pliable bodies of wov- homes, and the creches spread all over Europe. en twine and wire, expres- sive faces. The limbs are of finely carved wood. The fig- ures are dressed in 18th century costumes, enriched with jewels and embroidery. The heads and shoulders of the figures, modeled in terracotta and painted in flesh tones, are credited to some of 18th-century Na- ples' finest sculptors: Giu- seppe Sammartino and his pupils, Salvatore de Franco, Sjuseppe Gori and Angelo iva. £ Creches are also popular in other parts of Europe notably Provence in France, and in Spain. But none has reached the high degree of artistic elegance of those of 18th century Naples. May holiday _s blessings brighten your a ls / MANCHESTER CREDIT UNION for being : 5 able to serve COMMUNITY { q TTR Ta Santa's on his way to deliver a happy day! PORT CLEANERS JOHN REIGER REAL PORT PERRY REP. -- GREETINGS «. Santa's on his way with a sleighful of merry wishes for you, plus a hearty "Thank you" from us, tool ESTATE MARION HOPKINS . Lk )