Thursday, January 6, 2011

Holiday traditions in my hometown.

Well, somehow or another, I have managed to almost let slip by the opportunity to show off a holiday tradition in my town, Mt. Healthy. Well, I lucked out and was reminded by a friend on Facebook of Three Kings Day (or Feast of the Epiphany for us Catholic folks). Every year since I can remember, Paul R. Young Funeral Home has been setting up this life-size nativity scene, complete with sheep, sometimes goats, a donkey or two and, wait for it... three kings (two of the three can be seen off to the right in the pic below).

When I was little, my brothers and my parents would take me up to see the animals and somewhere along the line, I heard that the statues were actually members of the Young family cast in wax. I have no idea if that is true, but it seems believable enough, so we'll go with it! We would walk up there a few times before Christmas, as it's only a couple blocks from my parents' house. Baby Jesus would show up in the manger late on Christmas Eve (if I remember correctly). Kids love to bring along carrots and other treats for the donkey and sheep. I just like to pet the sheep and goats when they have them! They are just so soft.

I finally had the opportunity to visit on December 30. Up to that point, it had been so cold and snowy that I just didn't feel like going out and standing around up there. That day, they ended up closing our office early for New Year's because many people were out using up remaining vacation days and that sort of thing. When I left work around 2 pm, I knew just where to go!

So here is mama donkey and newly born Princess Aurora (born December 27, 2010, said the sign there). Just three days old at the time of this photo. I am guessing she was born there at the nativity scene, but don't know for sure.

I've never seen a baby donkey before. She is quite cute!

The sheep and their babies were all snuggled up in a couple of big fleecy piles. I think I was the only one cold out there that day!




One of the few who was out moving around. Never got close enough to the fence for me to pet though, unfortunately.

No comments:

Post a Comment

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails