'Undiscovered Christmas' — BYU display offers a look at other cultures

For those who perpetually live the Christmas season inside a glass case or displayed on the coffee table or corner shelf, the posture of reverence is always the same: Mary kneels with hands clasped, while Joseph stands next to her, staff in hand, as they gaze at the newborn baby between them.

Some Nativity scenes are small and simple, others life-size, ornate and elaborate. They usually come with an extended cast of characters: an angel, shepherds, wise men, sheep, cattle, donkeys and camels. A majority of Americans have traditionally pictured — and purchased — those resembling fair-skinned Caucasians.

So it's often a shock, particularly for children who have never experienced another culture, to see Mary, Joseph and company with brown faces and black hair, dressed in the native costumes of Mexico, Central or South America.

There, Jesus can be pictured not lying in a manger, but wrapped tightly to a cradleboard, housed in an adobe pueblo. Shepherds and Magi (wise men) often bring blankets, moccasins and pottery as gifts, with a tiny cross as part of the backdrop. Camels are nowhere to be found — they aren't part of the native animal population.

As Utah's Latino population continues to grow, the scenes become more commonplace with the community itself. But there's a small move afoot in Utah County to help introduce residents to an "Undiscovered Christmas" that exists outside the shopping malls, school programs and community concerts.

Katie Criddle, promotions director for Brigham Young University's Museum of Peoples and Cultures, said this past Thursday's event was expected to draw more than 200 people to the tiny museum south of campus — most of them students and families with young children.

Attendance at the museum has skyrocketed in the past year, jumping from 100 percent to 200 percent as student employees work to not only help educate the public about other cultures, but also offer community events designed to explain foreign customs to kids.

This year's event featured Nativities from the Southwest, Mexico and Latin America, though only a few of the 40 Nativities the museum owns were on display, because there is limited space amid the other exhibits in the former dormitory building.

"You see Christian truths incorporated into what these people believe," Criddle said, noting Kachina dolls — both male and female — often serve as messengers instead of the traditional wise men. "You often see coyotes and sheep rather than camels and cows."