Thursday of the First Week of Advent

Who created manger scenes?

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Advent Fast Fact

St. Francis often gets credit for creating the Nativity scene. However, his scenes were live ones—with real animals, real straw and a real trough. Modest Nativity scenes include, at minimum, a manger—sometimes known as a crèche or crib—which was a feeding trough for animals. (Some say this is so because Jesus came to offer himself as food for all creation.) Home nativity scenes usually have little figurines and can fit on a mantelpiece with relative ease. Some people choose to put them under their Christmas tree to symbolize God’s gift to all of us in the birth of Jesus.

Amazingly, many pet owners report that, each Christmas, their dog always sits right near a manger on the ground, or their cat climbs way up onto the mantel to sit by a manger there.

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