A Nativity play or Christmas pageant is play which recounts the story of the Nativity of Jesus. It is usually performed at Christmas, the feast of the Nativity.
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Liturgical
More formal Nativity plays have featured in Christian worship since medieval mystery plays. The twelfth to nineteenth pageants of the 48-cycle York Mystery Plays dealt with the Nativity story. In Germany, the Weihnachten services on Christmas Eve include a children's Mass called Weihnachtsgeschichte, which features a Krippenspiel ("crib play").
Pastorelas
In Latin America pastorelas ("shepherd's plays") are performed in many local communities. These were imported during Spanish colonization of the Americas but are no longer common in Spain. They recount the story of the shepherds travelling to worship the newborn Christ, augmenting the Biblical text with apocryphal events, indigenous beliefs, regional features, anachronisms, satire and buffoonery. Each community's play evolves into a distinctive tradition.[1]
In schools
Many Christian primary schools put on a Nativity play. Schoolchildren in costume act as the human and angel characters, and often as the animals and props. Parents form the audience. In the United Kingdom, increasing secularism and sensitivity in multicultural areas to non-Christian pupils has led many schools to end performance of Nativity plays, or significantly alter their content, causing others to complain about excessive political correctness. The Daily Telegraph reported that one in five primary schools was planning a "traditional nativity play" for 2007.[2] At one school in Somerset, disturbances were reported after allegations that tickets had misallocated by organisers, and forged by a parent.[3]
Literary
Modern writers to have written Nativity plays include Lucjan Rydel (Polish Bethlehem, 1904); Cicely Hamilton (The Child in Flanders: A Nativity Play, 1922); and Dorothy L. Sayers (He That Should Come, 1938).
See also
- Passion play - a play about the Passion performed at Easter
- Nativity scene - a visual depiction of the Nativity
References
- ^ Harris, Cathlyn A. (December 2001). Los Pastores/Las Pastorelas: Public Theatre, Popular Devotion. Hemispheric Institute, NYU. Retrieved on 2008-01-04.
- ^ Henry, Julie; Vikki Miller. "School nativity plays under threat", The Daily Telegraph, 2007-12-03. Retrieved on 2007-12-14.
- ^ "Parental ire at Somerset school's nativity play", The Daily Telegraph, 2007-12-17. Retrieved on 2008-01-04.
