CHESTERTON – What’s so special about Dec. 6-7? It’s when the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of St. Nicholas. This year, the St. Patrick Catholic Community marked the occasion with a new activity, asking for members of the community to share their favorite religious statues to create an exhibit honoring St. Nick and showcasing the Nativity story.
“We had lots of nativities, very interesting ones, and people had a great time walking through looking at them,” Parishioner Norma Dvorscak said. “And a few of them said, ‘I want you to do this next year, so I can bring mine in.’”
Dvorscak, an active member of the parish since 1980, came up with the idea after reading about another religious entity that did something similar.
“I couldn't even tell you what kind of magazine or newspaper it was in, but I had read it somewhere and it just stuck with me,” she said. “I don't even know where it was. I don’t believe it was local. But we decided to do it, and it was fun. We had a good time.”
Dvorscak had read the article, she estimates, maybe three or four years ago, and always kept the idea in mind. This year, she finally decided to ask pastor Father Jon Plavcan if she could encourage participation in a Nativity exhibit.
“He said yes, so I got a team together, and we started planning,” she said. “We then got other people to help, and it turned out really well.”
Dvorscak shared that she has always loved Nativity scenes and has two or three of her own. She was curious what other people owned, what kind of Nativity scenes they had, and quickly realized through the activity that it was really quite a variety.
The Nativity scenes that parishioners shared came in all shapes and sizes. Dvorscak noted one was the size of a matchbox with little figurines inside it. And still an even tinier one required a close-up look to see the scene depicted.
The figures that represented the Nativity story came in diverse forms. Some of the more unique ones showed the Holy Family through the appearance of animals such as bears and red robins.
“We had things from Peru and other countries. So, it was really interesting,” Dvorscak said. “One family probably had six or seven of them.”
Dvorscak explained one change she might like to make next year, if the parish chooses to repeat the project, is to include the name of the family who owns each nativity and maybe some information about the particular Nativity displayed in front of it during the exhibit.
The exhibit was open after each Mass during the weekend of Dec. 6-7. It was set up in the gym of the school; therefore, attendees only had to walk a short distance across the parking lot to view the Nativities. There were also tables set up where parishioners could enjoy all kinds of homemade cookies, hot chocolate and coffee.
“I think, a really good turnout for the first time doing anything like this,” Dvorscak said. “People walked away kind of excited because they were saying to me, ‘When you do this next year, I'm going to bring mine.’”
Dvorscak chose the particular weekend for the exhibit in celebration of the Feast of St. Nicholas. While parishioners were also invited to bring their statues of St. Nick, Dvorscak was the only one to display hers this year.
“Nobody else had a St. Nicholas,” she said. “I had one nice size one that I've had for several years. I had another tiny one, but I didn't bring that one.”
Dvorscak, who helped begin the RCIA program at the Chesterton parish when it first began in the diocese years ago, said she hoped that the figurines might inspire some discussion among children regarding the differences between St. Nick and Santa Claus.
“I wanted to encourage them to give from the heart,” she said. “We didn't have a lot of young kids. However, there was a religious education program going on at the time, and they came through. The teachers took their time with the kids and explained things to them, and it was really nice.”
Faith Formation Secretary Tracy Oliver said viewing the exhibit was something neat for the students to experience. While she didn’t walk directly with the students, she did notice that they seemed to enjoy looking at all the different Nativity scenes as they passed by them.
“They seemed very intrigued by it,” she said. “I would say they definitely enjoyed it.”
According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, in its present form, the custom of displaying figures depicting the birth of Christ owes its origin to St. Francis of Assisi, who made the Christmas crèche for Christmas Eve of 1223. For more information, visit https://www.usccb.org/resources/history-nativity-scene. For more details on events at St. Patrick, visit https://www.stpatsparish.org/.
