Catholic traditions

As a baby catholic (I was baptised 8 years ago), I am still learning its traditions. What I know is all attributed to Mary my best friend. She introduced me to her family, the teachings and prayers, the churches, the clergy (priests, nuns, monks etc.), feast / obligation days. We attended midnight mass together, walked the stations of the cross and drove from church to church on Good Friday, trying to stay up so we could accompany our Lord Jesus as he endured his suffering on the day before his crucifixion.

One of the traditions is waiting at the manger on christmas eve, to wait for the arrival of baby Jesus. There would a creche or a nativity scene in most local churches in Malaysia and it is usually next to the altar, all lit up, and carries the pride of the church. Sometimes there is a pageant on christmas eve and the church will be filled with people with more standing on the aisle or outside the church watching everything that is happening inside the church on a projector.

We have been on a quest ourselves to find our perfect nativity scene that would evoke the same feeling of awe, reverence, peace, love and gratitude. Today at the Christmas Shop in Marysville, we saw some...but we will wait till we moved into our own home and the nativity scene would be the symbol that we have finally come home, bringing home our baby Jesus.

Some interesting things to note about the creche...did you know the manger should be empty until christmas day. Only on the next day, the shepherds will arrive. But the wise men would only show up in January, by that time shepherds would have return to their duties, so shepherds and wise men/kings are never seen together. Creche would stay up until February 2, which is the feast day of the Presentation Of the Lord.

The tradition of creche only came about during the time of St Francis of Assisi, that's why there is an ox and a donkey. He wanted to allude to Isaiah 1:3 which states "The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master's crib; but Israel does not know, my people does not understand."