Christmas time can bring excitement for many reasons and on La Palma, one of those is the nativity scene, or Belenes, as they are called. They are a real work of art and each village, town or area take it upon themselves to bring this little piece of magic to us. Just by looking at them, apart from the religious significance, you can tell that the people who made them had a lot of fun doing it. Often they are in a church hall and are a landscape complete with tiny Canarian houses (with pebbles on the roofs to represent the stones that people really do put on their roofs), goats and chickens grazing nearby, water tanks, crops in the field and of course somewhere in among it all, the nativity scene itself.
Or maybe, out in the country such as the road going down to Santo Domingo, the scene is helped along by a group of small Canarian houses tightly clutching the hillside (think gnomes in a garden).
In Franceses our local people go for the life-size version set in a cave which lies between Los Castros and Los Machines (two areas of Franceses).
Attention to detail is not spared and old artifacts are casually laid about to add interest. Here you can see a horse's saddle behind Mary and in the photo below, you can see old implements such as the machete in a chopping block of wood and even a very worn beret as worn by the elderly French residents of the village.
The people who create this scene each year always make it a fun event and cook up a huge paella to reward the work. But the effort is certainly not wasted and people often stop in their cars to admire the results. I just love the angel dangling dangerously from the ceiling! However, from the photos, it's hard to get a sense of perspective until you put a person in front of them!
It has long been our desire to create a nativity scene ourselves, although on a miniature scale as I don't think I could cope with three 6-foot kings about the place. We have had a couple of attempts over the years but seem to have lost a few components along the way and it has never come to much. But we do have the very place for it in our own tiny cave just by the sala.
So this year we decided that we would renew our efforts, in a small way. Actually, it's very easy because many of the shops sell figures and little stable-like items or animals just for this purpose. The only problem is that you can end up with a donkey bigger than a house and the stable so small that baby Jesus won't fit in.
Hopefully this time we have got the scales about right and not only did we enjoy making this little scene, but we are ridiculously proud of it!
