THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS
As the years pass I'm becoming more and more jaded with today’s modern commercial concept of Christmas. Granted the grand children have grown up though not yet produced their own progeny; consequently there's no current need nor urge to deck our halls with twisted boughs of holly, nor arrange a multitude of tinsel wrapped pressies under a fake tree.
Weighed under with this Dickensian ‘bah humbug’ outlook it took a visit back to my favourite haunt, Ecuador, to realise that Christmas doesn’t need a million fairy lights twinkling on and off; it doesn’t need expensively packaged baubles cluttering the corner of a living room.
In Cuenca and its surrounding hamlets I found a simple celebration of Christ’s birth in a mixture of tongue in cheek humour and practicality and the excited participation of wide eyed children in countless pageants revisited year after year.
For a start I found the splendid tree above, gracing a house in a side street
high in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador; it's made up of numerous empty plastic
drink bottles – the effect is startling… a huge appreciative grin the end result.
On a Cuenca street corner silver foil, aluminium and a lick of red paint produced
yet another breath taking tableau –a space age Madonna complete with halo.
But it was a final chance encounter with the Angel Gabriel resplendent
in Roman toga and folded wings that finally transported me from septuagenarian whining back to the magic of Christmas
Past. As passers-by gathered to watch
this modern Angel stood in a side street off the Cuenca flower market, busy pulling together a street parade of eager youngsters, melding Joseph and Mary with a youthful Santa and a busy mum fastening the shoe laces of her two small Wise Men.
this modern Angel stood in a side street off the Cuenca flower market, busy pulling together a street parade of eager youngsters, melding Joseph and Mary with a youthful Santa and a busy mum fastening the shoe laces of her two small Wise Men.
This Parade through Cuenca’s busy streets would be one of many – there are after all reputed to be 52 churches in Cuenca proper alone!
And if you need further proof that human ingenuity and humour can march hand in hand with the religious fervor of Christmas celebration just look at these clever examples from around the world….
MERRY
CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!
A colourful tie in to a fashionable Xmas….
From Belgium a multitude of crockery…
Umbrellas above and hub caps below…
Even a Pizza…
From Holland a Heinekins Tree…
And from Fiji a Tapa mat bedecked in glitter…
From
New Zealand a floating tree….
…that glitters in the night.
