Nativity Plays and Sociocultural Assumptions
We were at our son’s nativity play few days ago and I had a better time than I’d previously imagined. It was somehow cute seeing little children dressed up as sheep, cattle, donkeys, chickens, stars, and angels in an attempt to retell the Christmas story. There was a surprise though, in Nigeria, nativity plays usually feature three wise men, but here they had three “white” kings of orient. I imagine verisimilitude is difficult with an almost all-white cast! I joked to my wife at the end that they didn’t have the scene where Herod massacred toddlers— I imagine that is perhaps considered age-inappropriate , not cute and cuddly and bad for Christmas cheer. Subsequently, I have been thinking about this typical nativity scene portrayal and how the way we typically read the Christmas story is well, mostly wrong. It is interesting that of all the four gospels only Matthew and Luke report the birth of Jesus. Matthew does not go into great detail about the birth of Jesus beyond repor...