As usual I'm putting up my Christmas decorations gradually. For this weekend (3rd Advent), I have added my angels and my Nativity scene. The glass angels with the electric candles in the living room; the rest in my study. The angels all came as gifts from friends on different occasions; the nativity set I bought myself many years ago. (Originally it was just the stable, the family and the three wise men. I've added the other pieces from different sources...)
See the little red wooden horse on the left? It is typical of the Swedish province Dalarna (and nowadays a well-known Swedish souvenir found in almost any tourist shop all over the country). This little one lives on that shelf in my study all year round, but gets to stay for Christmas as well. Partly because of its size; but also as a reminder that its province of origin is also famous for old illustrations of Biblical stories painted in a very special style. Like the one below, of "the three wise men on their way to Bethlehem", by Back Olof Andersson (1797). He and others who made paintings like these knew the Biblical stories from listening to them in church, but had never been to those far-away places themselves, and pictured things very differently in their head...
...Which may in turn serve as a reminder that how we in our time picture things from the past may perhaps not always be all correct either... ;-)
You know which one is my favourite of all your angels, don't you! And it is no secret that I love Dalarna horses :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, our mind has to rely on what it knows when trying to understand fictional or real events set in another time or even just in another place like ours. I am sure that I am unable to fully grasp the hardships single parents with a small income have to cope with in their daily lives, even if they life right next to me - or take the family in the attic flat above mine; they have fled their home country with nothing more than what they could carry plus two small children. They live "in my time and my place", but our lives have been and still are completely different.
N
DeleteMeike I'm not sure but I seem to vaguely recall that you may have said that your favourite is the same as my own - the porcelain one with the star, which I've had since early childhood. (All the others have come to me much later in life.)
You're quite right of course that we rely on our imagination for a lot of things in our own time and place as well. (I live surrounded by immigrant families, too.)