Significance of the santons

While church life has become a minority interest over the last two centuries, the Provençaux continue to display crèches in their homes, streets, village squares and even city halls, like my birthplace of Avignon. There are crèches for sale in local markets, crèches competitions complete with crèches juries, with winners pictured in local newspapers.
The santons themselves enjoy national popularity, as evidenced by their appearing periodically on French Christmas stamps (1960, 1977, 1992, 1995, 2009).

A recent survey provides ample evidence that noëls, pastorales, and especially family crèches remain dear to the people of Provence, and still figure as an integral part of their holiday festivities (Esprit d’Ici, Le Magazine de l’Art de Vivre en Région, nº41, novembre-décembre 2018, p.111). Does this mean that everyone believes in the Great Story – of creation, fall, and redemption – behind the nativity story recounted in the Gospels? Not necessarily.

People appreciate the santons primarily for sentimental reasons, as a way of keeping local traditions alive, traditions that give the Provençaux a sense of place and identity: a terroir with its patrimoine (see chapter 8 of my book). This in itself is not a bad thing in our age of uprootedness and displacedness. Still, for some the santons may retain something of the “mystery” that is part and parcel of their Christmas subject matter, as they did for me when I was very young. Silent though they be, my book suggests that they continue to serve as eloquent, miniature witnesses to the gospel story of God made man, and as standing reminders that everyone, regardless of their social status, ethnicity or geographical location, can be an everyday saint – and surely, to put it in the parlance of the people of Provence,

this is no “petit miracle”!