Straw Christmas Crib on Gallus Embankment
The festively illuminated and decorated Ljubljana is adorned with beautiful straw cribs, made with great precision and effort by Anton Kravanja, for the 10th year in a row! The life-size figures are made by tying straw into bundles and then attaching them to a wooden frame. This year's specialty of the nativity scene will be shepherds by the fire.
The setting up of the first-ever nativity scene was inspired by Francis of Assisi. The first Christmas crib in Slovenia was set up by the Jesuits in Ljubljana's Church of St James in 1644. The Jesuits' decision to use a set of figures to recreate the nativity scene was based on the premise that that was a way to make it easier for people to understand and imagine holy things and commemorate the birth of Christ.
Originally, the nativity scene would only be set up in churches, but later Christian believers brought this tradition to their homes and made it a custom to set up a Christmas crib in commemoration of the birth of Christ each year during the festive season, a time of peace.