The sand nativity scene of Lignano Sabbiadoro 2017

The Sand Nativity scene of Lignano Sabbiadoro has reached its 14th edition, collecting only last year almost 70 thousand visitors, so much so that the organizers had to extend the duration of the exhibition. Those who have had the pleasure of seeing him grow up and grow bigger and bigger, year after year, will be amazed by this season's performance. We don't want to reveal too much but know that the theme will be very topical and strong to give us, once again, indelible emotions.

For anyone who doesn't want to miss the opportunity to visit it, the Sand Nativity Scene of Lignano Sabbiadoro, will be open from 08 December 2017 to 28 January 2018 with free offer.

We interview the President of the association Dome Aghe & Savalon D' Aur, Mario Montrone, promoter and organizer of the Sand Nativity Scene of Lignano Sabbiadoro, made by sculptors of the Accademia della Sabbia in Rome.

Good morning President, how does the association come into being?

The association Dome Aghe and Savalon d' Aur, which in Italian means "only water and golden sand", was born from a group of people from Lignean who suffered during the Christmas period, seeing their city devoid of life. The municipal library was one of the first to involve the association with activities aimed at creating events that could bring together the community and make Lignano live even in the coldest months. I have to admit that it was not very successful, which is why other initiatives and events were sought. The turning point was 14 years ago, with a phone call at 3 o' clock at night with the head of the Accademia della Sabbia di Roma, who agreed to realize the first Sand Nativity Scene of Lignano Sabbiadoro, a small work of 2sqm in just two days. Today after 14 years they have become 400sqm and the whole community, in addition to the 70,000 presences of last year, actively participates in this event that wanted to create also a Christmas Square that lived at the tourist level all year round.

Why the idea of the Sand Nativity scene of Lignano Sabbiadoro, 14 years ago?

Because we call ourselves Sabbiadoro and we have decided to focus everything on our sand, only that of our beach, for a nativity scene that lives inside our own beach. No treatments, only water and sand from now on, here is also explained the name of our association.

Think that to make 20cm of compressed sand cube, you need one of 1mt. The work is huge and to make everything as natural as possible, it was decided to set up the entire Nativity scene of Sabbia di Lignano Sabbiadoro in the beach, so that the humidity of the night can wet the sculptures and make every detail resist without ever having to retouch or give up.

The Yule tree that is located inside the exhibition area of the Sand Nativity scene of Lignano Sabbiadoro, what does it represent?

Proposed by the Accademia della Sabbia in Rome, the Yule tree, ancestor of the Christmas tree, of Celtic origin, celebrated the winter solstice and was made to hope that the cold season would pass quickly. Initially adorned with smears, it was then turned to fruit, apples and today it is decorated with a festive decoration. For us, the turning point was when we decided to give each visitor a card to write a wish for the new year, to be hung on our Yule tree of the Sand nativity scene of Lignano Sabbiadoro. In addition, the 100 most beautiful cards of the previous year are displayed on the central bulletin board, so that everyone can admire them.

Other activities that every year enrich our exhibition area are the outdoor shell tree decorated by the children of Lignano and the path illuminated by candles that today we turn on our young guests. In addition, an outdoor play area for all children will also be built this year.

In this period the road network of Lignano Sabbiadoro undergoes some modifications due to the works on the seafront, how can you easily get to the sand nativity scene?

Certainly, our visitors will have to be patient with the modified road system, but the car parks are there for everyone.

A last note that shows how Lignano Sabbiadoro and the association Dome Aghe and Savalon d' Aur have a spirit of solidarity and sharing, after last year's event, which involved a delegation from the city of the earthquake Amatrice, in Lignano's New Year's Eve, this year, in addition to giving a small sand nativity scene always made by sculptors of the Accademia della sand in Rome, on December 16.

We thank the President and leave you with a series of previewed shots for you, thanks to the incredible work that has been done for weeks by sand sculptors: Pedro Mira, Eda Kaytan and Sokolova Irina.

We report the official press release of the event:

A child is still born between war and exodus, because God did not tire of men.

The Sand Nativity Scene of Lignano in 2016 has radically changed the style of previous editions and is characterized by a markedly Friulian approach, placing the timeless scene of the Nativity in the here of Friuli and in the epochal moment of the 1976 earthquake, of which run forty years. The choice, undoubtedly disruptive and anti-rhetorical, revealed a widespread sensitivity to the symbolic evocative aspects of Friulian history, obtaining a choral appreciation from visitors, never so numerous: over 65,000 in the 40 days of opening to the public.

The symbolism of the crib evokes the decline of infinity in time and places of mankind, thus condensing the dimensions of the here and now of history and the otherness of the divine, as if to mean that human time must measure itself against the radical dimension of infinity. In Friulian tradition it is the Arch of San Marc, the rainbow, that expresses the charm of the encounter between heaven and earth with an image that sinks into the origins of the religiousness of this land. In many traditional cultures, in fact, the rainbow represents the bridge arch between heaven and earth; mythologically the "staircase of the gods", a place where the infinite sinks into the finiteness of the world to refound conditions of salvation and peace.

This value is emphasized in the version of St. Mark's Gospel, considered the founder of Friulian Christianity, and expressed by the mosaics that cover the floor of the Basilica of Aquileia, in the phantasmagorical carpet of figures and colours that allude to the promise of a universal salvation that all men and the entire universe will be able to access after death. Symbolism contained in particular in the mosaic of Jonah, the prophet had resisted the divine order to convert and thus bring back to possible salvation also the bad inhabitants of the city of Nineveh.

This message of universal salvation, and in an extensive sense, of peace emerges with dramatic force from Friuli, a territory that has always been tormented by wars and invasions, especially on the occasion of the centenary of the Great War, Kobarid's Day and the resulting exodus, with thousands of women, old people and children forced to flee from Friuli and Veneto to shelter to the extreme Italian regions. Exodus of biblical dimensions, which prefigured and anticipated all exodus from the twentieth century to today.

These are the suggestions that the great Sand Nativity Scene 2017 intends to elaborate: the Friulian cultural peculiarity expressed by the symbolism of Aquileia's mosaics in the sign of Jonah, and the reference to the Great War as a dramatic background to the scene of the Nativity with its irreducible message of hope and peace.

However, there will be no trenches, barbed wires or weapons in the Sand Nativity Scene, because war will be recalled by images of everyday life interrupted and twisted: from "Carnic Carnic Carniche Carniche", to the painful sequence of exile crowds, to the Tagliamento bridge in Latisana, to the icon-symbol of the crucifixes, to the emblematic scenes of Mario Monicelli's film La Grande Guerra (The Great War by Mario Monicelli shot in Friuli and from the boots of the infantrymen and mountaineers sunk in the mud and snow, to the flip flops of today's exiles.

For the first time, in addition to the constituent component of the beautiful and plastic sand of Lignano, the crib will experiment a small insertion of media techniques to make complete the many aspects of the complexity of the theme.

And if the enormous bas-relief of St. Christopher of the Cathedral of Gemona del Friuli was the iconic image of the crib of the earthquake in the past edition, the reproduction of the bronze sculpture of the Angel of Charity by Ettore Ximenes, placed in 1917 to watch over the Cemetery of the Heroes on the back of the Basilica of Aquileia will be the symbol of the Nativity Scene 2017 in the sign of the arch.