Live Nativity Reenactment in Zavattarello, 2022 edition: our activities - from #LRCrafts - DIY Passion: if you can think it, you can make it by Rici86.
Leggi in italianoWe missed the Live Nativity Reenactment of Zavattarello (Presepe Vivente di Zavattarello, in italian), those last couple of years. Seeing our Christmas traditions alive again was wonderful, mainly because this year we were able to attend with all the family, including our toddler.
For more than 20 years, the Medieval town of Zavattarello in Northern Italy has reconstructed its ancient past, reenacting the traditions of the valley: inside Medieval stone houses, along the old roads, using ancient tools from the museum “Magazzino dei Ricordi” that are still functioning, with the company of livestock, a hundred reenactors recreates actively more than 30 daily life scenes.
This is a special Live Nativity Reenactment, though, where anyone can participate firsthand. Each scene along the path towards the manger in the barn is a living reproduction of those activities that were normal here in everyday life in the past.
And we wanted to give our contribution setting up two special scenes: the Master Bowyer and the textile crafters.
Live Nativity Reenactment in Zavattarello (Italy), Christmas 2022: our little angel in front of Mary, Joseph and Jesus
What’s special about the “Presepe Vivente” in Zavattarello?
Dozens of scenes set up with a hundred reenactors, who make each one really living using ancient still working tools, with the possibility for the audience to be an active part of the representation. During the Live Nativity Reenactment in Zavattarello you can taste freshly baked bread, take home a commemorative coin made in front of your eyes, be the jury for the prisoners of the Roman legions, escort the Three Kings to the manger… This and more, every year you’ll find something new to try out.
Watch the video trailerThe Live Nativity Reenactment in the Medieval town of Zavattarello
The tradition of the Live Nativity Reenactment in Zavattarello was born in Christmas 2000, first event of its kind in the province, and since then a not-to-miss appointment both for locals and visitors from afar.
When we think about a live Nativity scene, we imagine a group of people recreating a life-sized Jesus birth day, a reproduction of the scenes we display in our homes with statues inside the barn. In Zavattarello, though, the reenactors wanted to do it their own original way: real active scenes.
This is the peculiarity of the representation. Here visitors can be a real part of the ancient world that’s reproduced: you can eat bread, touch spinned wool and the sheeps fleece, listen to the Pharisees speech in the temple, chat with artisans who really knew how to do their job…
And if you have the impression that the artisans are particularly skilled using their tools, you’re right. In most cases, the people setting up a scene have first hand experience with the job: you could happen to find the local shoemaker reparing shoes, the cabinetmaker working with wood, the local baker kneading bread.
The Medieval town, then, is one-of-a-kind context.
All the scenes take place along the roads and inside the Medieval houses of this town that still preserves its original look, with narrow winding streets. Entering those rooms and walking those streets you can see for yourself that a little has changed of the original appearance of this place.
The owners of the Medieval stone houses kindly open them to reenactors and visitors: the ancient town bakery, wine-scented cellars, the main hall of a noble palace, homes of artisans and priests, cobbled courts, an ancient watch tower.
And not only the place is imbued in history, also the tools from the past of the valley: the museum “Magazzino dei Ricordi” by Bruni Virgilio has always lent his artifacts to set up the scenes, to make the reenactment more real and active. Some of the thousands of ancient tools come back to life in the hands of people who know how to use them.
Another peculiarity of this Live Nativity Reenactment.
The Master Bowyer scene
How did #LRCrafts contribute this year?
The event organisers of the “Presepe e Passione” association contacted us in December to ask us to set up a new scene, something never seen before. We gave it a thought for a while. What skills can we put at this event’s service? Which of our usual activities could fit in the context of the Live Nativity Reenactment?
We took a shor time to find the most suitable one: making bows and arrows! For sure it was never seen in the previous editions of the event. During the Roman Imperial period, then, the legions had archer squadrons, called sagittarii, so our scene had its own historical background.
Following the spirit of the event, this is a job we know how to do: we made our own historical archery accessories, as some of the family bows as well. We even made a few of the bowyer tools we use, and those would for sure be appreciated in our scene, together with our targets, bos, arrows, leather quivers.
Our idea was receive favorably from the organisers, the other reenactors and the visitors during the event. The area we had at our disposal was big enough to work and display everything, a green area that could be appreciated from above. Locutus and his uncle were busy building arrows from branches and peeling long wooden poles to be turn into bows. The first completed arrow was even test shot on one of the targets!
The textile crafters: embroidery and lucet
One scene only was not enough, though. Other family members participated, so we were able to set up a second one.
This second scene should have been more traditional: the embroiderers. A classic of this representation, with ancient looms from the museum on display. We added a few Medieval-themed work in progress of our own: a tree we usually bring with us during reenactments to show the Bayeux stitch and a brick stitch purse.
To enrich the set up, we also brought our lucets and a few yarn leftovers from my mother’s crocheted projects. The idea was to present also other textile crafts, without being perfectly historically accurate: we just wanted to show a few selected items from the past and have different topics to chat about with visitors.
Well, what was supposed to be a side topic rapidly became the main focus of the whole scene!
To teach my sister-in-law how to lucet, we began making simple bracelets, that we then gave to the children who came to the event as a small present.
Those bracelets were immediately appreciated, so that we had to abandon any idea of embroiderying to concentrate solely on lucetting. Small free gifts made by reenactors have always been a peculiarity of this event: tastes of focaccia, small coins, candles, goat cheese, even wooden reindeer toys.
Seeing how many bracelets we had to make during the first day of the event just in the span of two hours, on Christmas day all the women in the family got busy making a few dozens to have them ready for the next day, when we expected even a greater number of visitors.
Well, 60 bracelets went like hot cakes ina few minutes! We lost count at some point, but probably we made more than 200 in total.
The best part was that people didn’t just stop by for the free gift, but a lot appreciated a little chat with us, to understand the tool we were using, how it worked, what’s the history behind it. We also could speak about embroidery, letting people touch our projects.
A special mention for our daughter: she attended the event, too, with the angel dress we made her. I sewed a white tunic and her granny crocheted her wings. She had fun, too, going around on her grandpa shoulders.
This experience was great for anyone of our family, we hope the same for the visitors who stopped by to see what we were doing and for the organisers, who each year spend a lot of time and effort preparing the event.
We already have ideas for the next edition. Because, you know, for our family if you can think it, you can make it. Even at Christmas!
