Božično voÅ¡čilo 2009

Protect our Earth. Varujmo našo Zemljo.

Dear friends / Dragi prijatelji,

Wishing you a joyous and festive Christmas,
May the New Year 2010 bring peace and contentment.

Želimo vam vesel in praznični Božič,
Naj vam novo leto 2010 prinese mir, in zadovoljstvo.

Thezaurus team
Institute for Slovenian Studies of Victoria Inc.
Melbourne, Australia.

Jaslice / Manger, Franciscan Church, Ljubljana, Slovenia 2008.
Photo by Maja Obreza

The manger/ jaslice, an arranged presentation depicting Christ’s birth, is a relatively recent cultural phenomenon of the last two centuries. It first appeared In 1223, as a living manger for Christmas created by Francis of Assisi in the forest of Greccio in Umbria.
Mangers as we know them today can be traced to 1560, the Jesuit Collegium in Coimbra Portugal; soon spread throughout Europe. In Slovenia the first record of the manger was in the first Jesuit Church of Saint Jacob (Šentjakobska cerkev) in Ljubljana in 1644.
From the beginning of the eighteenth century mangers were commonly set up in houses, towns, and countryside. Slovenes soon created a rich range of mangers, masterpieces of a great variety of styles and materials. The errection of mangers is still nowadays above all a form of creativity and mastery. Apart from highly interesting presentations in churches there are individual examples in homes and in exhibitions of mangers.

Source: Bogataj, Janez, Smo kaj šegavi? Založba Mladinska Knjiga, Ljubljana, 1998.