nativity scene exhibition
Apparently, this December has been the rainiest in the last 30 years in here, so I haven’t gone out much. I’ve mostly stayed at home studying, watching the TV Shows, and drinking lots of coffee with milk to keep warm. However, on Sunday I went out for a walk around the town and found quite a lot of people outside.
Normally, the street markets in the city center are where crowds tend to gather. They sell Christmas decorations for the tree, the front door, or nativity scenes in all possible sizes. They start with figures about the size of action figures and go all the way down to tiny versions, maybe around 1cm tall (I never really knew what the purpose of those extremely small figures was)
Although on Sundays Mataró is usually a deserted town, with shops closed, empty streets, and a somewhat void atmosphere, this Sunday after Christmas there was a lot of life. Even with the Christmas market already closed, there were more people than expected. I was walking along La Riera, near number 64, right in front of the nativity scene exhibition I mentioned in the previous post, and it was open… on a Sunday… at 7 in the evening. So I decided to go in.
Here, the nativity scene culture is much stronger than I expected. We found dozens of nativity scenes displayed in boxes, one after another, even with a step so children can see them in detail. Let me explain: each nativity scene is inside a box that you look into through a small window. Inside is the scene. To see it properly, you almost have to press your face against the glass. There’s a step so children can have the window at eye level. In fact, very tall people kneel on the step to see it properly.
And here comes the most interesting part: each window is unique and has a lot of detail in terms of depth and perspective. They use figures of different sizes, larger ones in the front and smaller ones in the back (the same tiny ones I saw at the Christmas market). Thanks to this, they create incredible scenes that everyone can enjoy:
Admission to the event is free, so at the end of the tour they asked me for a donation, which I was happy to give. And for making the donation, they gave me a handmade miniature clay figure of a goose, which I absolutely love.
