First of all, let us explain a little bit on how we got involved in decorating the nativity cave. As you all know (or don't know) St.Peter's Cathedral Church is not only a big parish in West Java but also called a city church. It has vast area where people attending the church live spread around it. To strengthen the bond between so many peoples, the church forms lots of small religious community by the region where the peoples lives. Right now there are 14 regions under the parish of St. Peter's Cathedral in Bandung, and it will be more in the future due to the area still continue developing. Each year for each region in turn asked to make and decorate the nativity hut.
I've known for quite some time that this year the decorating task went to my region, St.Elizabeth. However I didn't think much of it until in one rosary meeting the region leader and the coordinator of the nativity hut held my hand tightly and said "you and your mom will help decorating the hut, right?" Oops.
me : eerr....
they : both of your talent must not be wasted y'know..
me : *sheepish smile*
they : surely you can set aside just a little bit of time to supervise and give ideas, the rest of us will help to...
me : well...we'll see.
For the sake of St. Elizabeth community, we finally agreed to help. At the end, turns out making the hut needed a lot of time and labour *sigh*. However It's been a fun and enlightening experience, and through this post we invite you all to learn with us! and more relieving, we got lot of help from people who accustomed to doing this kind of work. Thanks alot, guys!
Basically for this year's setting the hut consist of 4 parts : the stage, the hut, the nativity statues (can't do without them) and the floral decor. The process started with the hut and decor design. Mrs.Sri, the coordinator, worked together with the people who had helped the church in building and assembling the hut last year. It's been decided to use a simple stage just like 'stairs', with the hut made from bamboo making it look like a traditional Sundanese hut. Sneaking peeking the hut below...
Both the hut and stage were pre-made into several parts and assembled at the inner yard of the church. First of all, the stage. Constructed from wood beams and
covered with plywood, it consist of few parts. Part C was the largest one, 1,4 meter in height, it supported the cave and the statues. In front of part C was part F (height 1,4 m) and E (height 70 cm), which supported animal statues, garland and potted plants. Part D was right in the middle will support the angel piggy bank and flower arrangements
The hut also consists of parts. Part A made from plywood and covered with ilalang grass was the base where the statues will be put and bolted. While part B consists of the structure and roof of the hut which will be put last after all the statues were set. The hut itself just made from natural bamboo without any finishing, and the plywood for the stage was covered with styrofoam with stone texture on it.
After the stage was set, next was putting the statues on the base of hut (part A). The ones inside the hut are the Holy Family and The Three Kings, while the shepherds, sheep and other animal were put on the stage (part F). After being adjusted, all the statues were bolted onto the base. By this way, the statues were secured, next was putting the structure and roof (part B) on top of the base (part A)....
Up..up..be careful! don't scratch the statues...
Pheww...the hut secured in place....
Now just a bit of paint to fix places that being scratched during the assembling process.
Now we're halfway through, next on part 2: Making and Assembling the Sweets Garland!
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