Nativity ‘village’ at Branchville parish focuses on the birth of Christ

BRANCHVILLE  The walls and roof of the manger were made of popsicle sticks, painted brown. The figurines, including the Blessed Mother, Joseph, and Baby Jesus, were fashioned from modeling clay. It took four young girls in the Barovjan house from Our Lady Queen of Peace (OLQP) Parish here, two hours on the Friday after Thanksgiving to build a miniature masterpiece: a small Nativity set that realizes their own interpretation of the birth of the Christ Child.

Their small classic crèche — populated by figures dressed in traditional garb and featuring a wooden manger painted to make it look weathered — joins nine other Nativity sets by OLQP parishioners that are displayed parish’s Varricchio Hall. The veritable Nativity “village” is intended to bring the focus to the reason for the season: the incarnation of Jesus at Christmas. It is on display until the Feast of the Epiphany, the end of the Christmas season.

“I made a spider that’s in the hay, a big, fat chicken, and a tree,” Katherine Barovjan laughed and blurted out with pride, during a recent interview with The Beacon. She made the Nativity with her sister Julianna, 8, a cousin, and a friend. “It was fun,” she said.

For three Christmas seasons running, Father Philip-Michael Tangorra, OLQP’s pastor, has been challenging parishioners — individuals, families, and groups — to use their own ingenuity to make their own Nativity sets. They have been made of a variety of items, including, Plaster of Paris, wood, paper, boxes, Christmas balls, glue, paint, and sprinkles. Some the materials were purchased at a craft store and others were “found items” around the house, much the Nativity itself, when the Holy Family had to improvise, making due with a “found” manger and straw for the animals. Some people will take their Nativity sets home, make improvements on them, and bring them back next Christmas, while others will make all-new scenes, Father Tangorra said.

“The displays are beautiful. I let the parishioners be creative. The people love them, as they walk around looking at them in Varricchio Hall. They are cute,” Father Tangorra said. He got the idea years ago, when he was studying for the priesthood in Rome. One church there displayed an enormous number of Nativity sets at Christmastime, many created by noted artists, who were competing with each other. “I said, ‘If I ever have my own parish someday, I want to do this,’ ” the priest said.

Eleven members of the Catholic Zoomers, OLQP’s youth ministry, designed and built a Nativity set, during a recent meeting. They built a small manger from a cardboard box, strips of a brown paper bag, and wood bark. They also used peg dolls with large heads for the figurines. The Zoomers dressed them, like the Christ Child in swaddling clothes, using cloth material, much of which the parish’s crafting ministry had donated. The young people, who included kids who are homeschooled and from other parishes, also made the animals out of felt and cotton, Jesus’ crib from a piece of bark, and the night sky night in back of the manger from a Craft Mac & Cheese box that they painted dark blue, said Monica Condit, OLQP’s youth minister.

“During the meeting, Father Phil asked questions and tested the Zoomers’ knowledge about what was going on in the Nativity story, like the names of the Three Wise Men: Gaspar [or Caspar], Melchior, and Balthasar,” Condit said. “The Nativity project is great for them — anything tangible, where they can apply themselves and learn the truth of our faith. They’re not only learning head knowledge, but also why we are doing what we are doing at Christmas — and have fun doing it,” she said.

Meanwhile, OLQP’s third-grade religious education class made a Nativity set in class on a recent Sunday morning. The manger was made of a cardboard box and populated by pre-cut wooden figurines — all in front of a piece of cardboard with a painted blue night sky and stars. The eight-year-old students delighted in using sparkles, glue, and paint for the project, said Elizabeth Silverthorne, their teacher.

“These Nativity scenes are beautiful decorations that all our Queen of Peace families can enjoy,” Silverthorne said. “It was easy to engage my students with arts and crafts. They had a good time. While we were making the Nativity, we talked about the story — about how Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were looking for a room in the inn in Bethlehem. I hope that they retained some of the facts that they might not have known before this project,” she said.

Back at the Barovjan house, the four girls “took the initiative,” after Father Tangorra issued his challenge before Thanksgiving, in making their Nativity — their first for OLQP’s Nativity display.

“The girls did an amazing job. They were very creative and got in involved. The older children helped the younger children. It was a great day,” said Marta Barovjan, aunt of Jessica and mother of Julianna and Katherine Barovjan. “The kids were reminded about the reason for the season. It’s not all about getting gifts; it’s also about what happened [in the story of Christ’s birth],” she said.