Away in a manger

Taking the ferry to Gozo is like stepping back in time. Instead of tall tower blocks and bustle, the buildings nestle close to the land, an unassuming stripe along the skyline where traces of the old traditions of the archipelago can still be found. [attach id=801838 size="medium" align="right" type="image"][/attach] During December, in the village of Għajnsielem, visitors can travel yet further back in time, stepping 2000 years into the past to the days when Jesus was born. The name of this village, the first to greet you as you land in the small port of Mġarr and look up to the hillside above, literally translates as ‘spring of peace’. Fresh water bubbled from the ground here in earlier times and flowed down the valley giving life to crops and plants. Now during advent, another kind of new life is celebrated with the biggest Christmas crib in Malta. The tranquil landscape of Ta’ Passi that slopes between Għajnsielem and the harbour is transformed into a life-size crib, an imagined village that transports visitors back to Bethlehem. Cribs and dioramas of the nativity scene are a long-standing tradition here, constructed with incredible craftsmanship as layer after layer of...