Christmas nativity scenes decorate the shop windows of Tallinn’s Vene Street
Text Susanna Poikela
Photos Andrei Chertkov
The shop windows of Vene Street in Tallinn’s old town have received their traditional Christmas makeover. As with previous years, the shop windows display ornate nativity scenes depicting the miracle of Christmas.
Shop windows on Vene Street are usually full of all manner of products from clothes to souvenirs. However, each Christmas, these normal displays are replaced with festive nativity scenes. The subjects of Christmas nativity scenes include, of course, Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus and Joseph, surrounded by all the animals in the stable and the shepherds observing the Christmas miracle. Somewhere on their way to witness the birth of Jesus are also three wise men from the East – Melchior, Baltasar, and Caspar.
According to Christian tradition, the donkey symbolises non-Hebrew peoples and the bull Hebrew people. The three shepherds symbolise the three stages of human life: youth, adulthood, and old age. In this way, different peoples have metaphorically gathered by the Christmas manger to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
