Christmas, from ice to shells, the strangest nativity scenes in the world

Large and small, made of unusual materials, set up in the most diverse places, the cribs combine tradition and creativity, unleashing the imagination of enthusiasts and the admiration of visitors from all over the world. We mention some of the most particular. Also this year Graz renews the tradition of the famous ice nativity scene, an idea by the specialized artist Gert J. Hoedl, who every year together with an international team of carvers stages the nativity scene in the Renaissance courtyard of the Grazer Landhaus. Approximately 50 tons of ice are used for the life-size figures and for the nativity scene and if the outside temperatures threaten the tightness of the sculpture, the work is repaired or the figures replaced.As is tradition, the Christmas season has been inaugurated at the zoo of Madrid with the installation of the famous submerged nativity scene. The work was deposited on the bottom of the zoo’s aquarium by two divers, including sharks, rays, barracudas and giant groupers. The divers swam four meters underwater carrying pieces of water-safe methacrylate into the tank. “We can work inside the tank without any problems and there are very few shark species that can be relatively problematic, but the vast majority of them do not cause any problems,” clarified Javier García, biologist and aquarium curator. (continued) Two tons of sand and water were needed to give life to the Las Canteras sand nativity scene in Las Palmas, on the island of Grana Canaria, the scene from September of the longest eruption ever known from the island. This year Las Palmas celebrates the 16th edition of the nativity scene, created thanks to the work of a group of sculptors, the largest and most heterogeneous, made up of 10 artists from 8 different countries. The visit takes place through a path of 1,500 square meters on the sand. From cold to heat, from sand to sea shells: one of the cribs that has been most admired in recent years is the result of a work started in 1974, for fun, by a resident of Seville for his children. Over the years, by assembling and working over a million sea shells collected on the beach, he has built a scene containing hundreds of figures, many of them in motion thanks to an engine that allows the characters and objects to move gestures and articulations. (continued) A bakery, a shoe shop, an inn, a church, a castle, a penknife, a blacksmith, a fisherman, cooks, shopkeepers, a musical group, animals that eat … are some of the hundreds of figures that make up this small town in miniature. The size of the nativity scene also engages lovers of the genre: among the smallest in the world we remember the one made in Lithuania, whose details are invisible to the naked eye and which passes through the eye of a needle. Students and professors of the “LinkMenu Fabrikas” of the Gediminas Technical University of Vilnius took three months to create it. On the other hand, there is the nativity scene in Alicante, Spain, one of the largest in the world at 18 meters high.