O LITTLE TOWN OF SEVILLE/BELEN

now the city's been inseminated with the spirit (inmaculadamente of course), it really is on all over the city. and all over city hall. the flags over the doors of the more, amen, celebratory churches have nothing on the nightly light show projected on the plaza de san francisco side of the ayuntamiento building. what you thought was just another parish marching band having an evening rehearsal turns out to be the bombastic soundtrack to a surprisingly impressive spectacle that narrates the history of the city from the pillars of hercules to its present position, which is, of course (and well after the show depicts the renaissance), at the center of the nativity scene.

and the nativity scene is at the heart of the home again this christmas in sevilla. you can get yourself a cheap and easy portal de belen at the chino store downstairs, but if you're serious (and they are) you go to the stalls of the christmas market between the cathedral and the archive building and get yourself a proper one. but where to start? i couldn't have told you the first time i came across the stalls. other than that there were some nativity related miniatures (and not so miniatures) for sale, i probably wouldn't have said the thing had anything to do with bethlehem. i was, however, excited to see the miniature legs of ham and the flayed and salted codfish, because even if they had nothing to do with christmas, they were good enough as christmas novelties for people outside of spain who obviously hadn't been good enough for the three kings to bring here for tastes of the real thing. and with all the spirit flying around, who has time to care one way or another? what says jesus like selling things outside of a catholic church? should it matter what they're selling?

but then a christmas miracle. and on the night of the inmaculada no less -- at least as far as mine eyes recall the glory. it happened that my angel gabriel was a serbian flamenco percussionist, but as they say, god has a mysterious management philosophy. and a revelation is a revelation. "so people are buying things for their nativity scenes. why are they selling jamón? there wasn't any jamón iberico in bethlehem," objects the non-believer. "of course there was jamón in bethlehem in seville." "and the rest of the stuff? why would anyone need the indian chief?" the angel is confounded for a moment -- or feigns it -- but responds spiritedly, because the answer is the spirit. you have your baby jesus and your jamón and, sure, that's all you really need for the nativity scene. but what fun to go back to the christmas market year after year to collect the rest, knowing with each passing year that you're getting closer and closer to having that third king. and then you're at the market with your grandchildren and want to take them home to show them how fine your portal has become over the years and, yeah, what it's still really missing are the indian chief and the rasta guy and the waterfall. "and you know that god would have invited everyone to his son's birthday. even if he didn't really like them, there needed to be people to serve drinks and the jamón."

i was counting my blessings that night. no way i could have expected such a revelation from city hall. when i saw that light display nearly a week later, i was almost shocked to see that its nativity didn't include much more than a baby jesus, the virgin and joseph. but i knew. and, really, even with all that spirit flying around, what could i expect? the municipal government is a secular institution. and i'm sure it meant well.