Most towns have nativity sets called "Precepios" in Italy. They are usually regionally decorated. Jesus, Mary and Joseph are surrounded by what people in the town do, or used to do. It is pretty cool:
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| On a rocky surface: this town, Urbino, is a hilly city |
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| In the church of Peschiera del Garda |
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| The Precepio of Salò |
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| This mill-house was almost big enough for children to play in. I would adore to have a house like this. |
Here at Garda Lake, they like to submerge baby Jesus underwater or strand him in the lake on floaters. I haven't decided yet if I like it or if sticking baby Jesus under water with air-bubbles coming out of his smiling baby mouth is sacrilegious. Nevertheless, I approve of creativity and think the people doing this had great intentions to both show off their unique nativity sets and the local surroundings (water).
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| creepy or cool? |
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| Here it looks cool |
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| The Nativity scene of Desenzano del Garda |
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| Underwater in Salò |
Lastly, the Nativity set at Desenzano has become the breeding grounds for ducks.
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| Couples. The bright color male is protecting the brown female hoping that she is pregnant from his seed. Who's the real daddy? No one really knows in the duck world, I guess. |
I thought it was the funniest thing watching the ducks splatter and fight for their female under the holy gentile vigilant gaze of the floating creepy 3 wise men. It was just so natural for the ducks to be making whoopee in the water and so unnatural for the holy nativity set to be there floating placidly in the middle. Funny. When I went there were 10 males for every female and they were fighting each other to get to the female and give her their seed.
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| "I caught you with my woman!" yikes! |
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| Pruning after hanky-panky |
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| The mating scene |
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| Defending their duckies honor |
It reminded me of guys fighting for a girl who didn't care about them anyway. Haha! Suckers. Wait, no, poor guys that are lead on by girls teasing them and ruffling their feathers.
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| Showing off |
I just read about duck mating habits and they are pretty disturbing! Skip this paragraph if you prefer not to be disturbed. Here are just 2 for your general education of mallard duck mating: 1) Female ducks try to avoid getting pregnant and do so by contorting their vagina in weird shapes to block it from the male (if they don't like him). disturbing fact #2) Males:after fighting with other ducks, getting hurt, and possibly not being the father, the male duck's penis withers like an umbilical chord and falls off after sex. This helps his blood flow in the rest of his body, as he needs it after fighting. But don't be alarmed! It grows back the next mating season depending on how much competition there is: more competition, more fighting, more penis. If the same were true for humans, we might see a rise in violence.
That duck day, standing next to me was a group of retired men watching the duck wars and commenting on it too, how girls once made them crazy then left them like the female duck does for a better looking duck, or the girl married them and took everything, and like ducks you never really know who the real daddy of the baby is. Oh, retired Italian men...Ha! I wish I could dress like one, and sit in an all male coffee bar hearing the foul sexist things they say, they are a hoot! Although, judging from my grandma and her group of 80+ year-old lady friends, I am sure the retired women have much fouler conversations. Here is something I heard and liked: L'amore e un universo, dolce è amaro, una eterna sorpressa...ma anche po essere una fregatura. (Love is a universe, sweet and sour, an eternal surprise but can also be an exhausting mess) Whatever view you take, it is funny to see how both people and ducks ruffle their feathers and show off to get attention and fight each other (in whatever form it is) to pass on their DNA to the best candidate. I need to look up fertility dates for ducks to find out when the baby ducks will be here. Exciting!
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