A Walk Through Bethlehem (in Melbourne).

Ken was watching the 6 o'clock news tonight, and called out something to me about a nativity display somewhere. I thought he was referring to the many Christmas lights displays around the suburbs of Melbourne, and didn't take much notice. I still didn't know what he was on about, even when he rang Channel 7 to ask where this display was, and they told him. We had a look on the Internet, but I was still looking under 'Christmas lights', and so I didn't find what he was looking for. As we had nothing else planned, we decided to go for a drive and have a look at the lights anyway, and discovered some wonderful displays not far from home.

Ken still had the bee in his bonnet about the Nativity display he'd seen on t.v., so we headed off for Thornbury, about half an hour's drive from home. We thought it was at a church, but no, it was actually a Catholic school. When we arrived, we were very lucky to find a parking spot close by, as there was a queue of people around two blocks to enter the display. At first we weren't going to bother joining the queue, but as Ken said, we've come all this way, we may as well stay for a look. We are both glad that we did.

How can I explain it? In the school grounds, people had re-created street scenes from biblical times in Bethlehem - all kinds of shops, ending up in the manger, with Joseph, Mary, Baby Jesus, a young shepherd, and the three Wise Men. Each 'shop front' along the street had people dressed up in periodical costume, and doing things like grinding grain, chipping masonry, etc. We have never seen anything like this, but found out that it was in it's sixth year. And when I came home to find out more, I discovered that lots of towns around the world do a similar thing! Here is the link to the one we went to: Walk Through Bethlehem.