Details of Vatican’s 2016 Christmas tree and Nativity
Scene
(Vatican Radio) This year’s Christmas tree and Nativity scene in
St. Peter’s Square will be inaugurated and lit up on December 9th and will
highlight several issues such as care for the environment, the sick and
migrants. A communique from the governing office of Vatican City said the 25
metre-high spruce tree for 2016 will come from the region of Trentino in
northern Italy and when it’s cut down local school students will plant nearly
40 new spruce and larch seedlings in a nearby area to replace trees suffering
from a parasite that had to be culled.
It said the tree will be adorned with handmade ornaments featuring
drawings made by children undergoing treatment for cancer and other illnesses
at several Italian hospitals.
Measuring 19 metres in width, this year’s giant Nativity scene
will feature 17 statues dressed in traditional Maltese costumes as well as a
replica of a traditional “Luzzu” Maltese boat.
In its communique, the Vatican City’s governing office said this
boat not only represents tradition: fish and life but also, unfortunately the
realities of migrants who in these same waters cross the sea on makeshift boats
to Italy.
Pope Francis will receive in audience on December 9th shortly
before the tree-lighting ceremony the designer of the Nativity scene, artist
Manwel Grech, representatives from Trent and Malta as well as several children
who designed the Christmas tree ornaments.
The lit-up tree will remain in St. Peter’s Square until the feast
of the Lord’s Baptism on January 8th.
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