presepe and a Christmas carol

Each year dedicated people produce a different, and increasingly complex, nativity scene. The baby Jesus does not appear in the scene until midnight on Christmas Eve, and as that date approaches the three wise men are moved closer and closer to the waiting stable. 

For the last few years the lighting has become more complicated, and the viewer watches while the scene is bathed in moonlight, through to daylight. Moving parts include a mill and smoke comes from a chimney with a little help from the operator who tops up the hidden source. 

The website can be visited here, website of il Grande Presepe di Roccasecca. Click on previous editions to see other versions of the nativity scene. Many Italian nativity scenes place the manger in the stable within a cave setting rather than a building. 

An Italian Christmas carol talks of the baby Jesus lying in a stable in a cave. Here is (on youtube) "Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle". The word "grotta" is cave, but here is translated as manger. 

Tu scendi dalle stelle, O Re del Cielo, e vieni in una grotta, al freddo al gelo. O Bambino mio Divino Io ti vedo qui a tremar, O Dio Beato Ahi, quanto ti costò l'avermi amato! A te, che sei del mondo il Creatore, mancano panni e fuoco; O mio Signore! Caro eletto Pargoletto, Quanto questa povertà più mi innamora! Giacché ti fece amor povero ancora!

Today I am grateful for creative people.