By NICKI WILPULA - Community Life Editor - community@starbeacon.com
While so much of the Christmas season is lost in marathon shopping and elaborate parties, the Historic Kirtland Visitors Center offers the public a time to reflect on the “reason for the season,” celebrating the birth and life of Jesus Christ. Focusing on the theme “Wise Men Still Seek Him,” the seventh annual exhibit features more than 500 Nativity scenes from around the world. Historic Kirtland is a reconstructed 19th century village, owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, located at 7800 Kirtland Chardon Road. Admission and parking are free.
Visitors can also enjoy the thousands of Christmas lights and music is offered from 7 to 8 p.m. nightly. Hours are 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 30, closed on Christmas Day.
“It’s a very peaceful environment,” said Elder Roger Butterfield, director of the Visitors Center. “It’s a place where people can come and reflect on the birth of the babe of Bethlehem and consider the blessings in their lives.”
Butterfield said there is something for everyone in the exhibit, history, art, religious significance. People can stay as long as they wish and take in as much of the exhibit as their time allows. Many people have returned year after year as a holiday tradition.
The Nativities are loaned by people from all over. “It’s a gift of love, the fact that they bring their Nativities to share,” Butterfield said.
Several weeks before the exhibit opens at the end of November, a committee begins planning the displays. The Nativities delivered to the center must be carefully unwrapped and catalogued.
“It’s our opportunity to give back to the community. The community is so generous to us,” Butterfield said.
Among the new pieces this year is one of the largest creches in the area carved by renowned Cleveland sculpture artist Norbert Koehn, who trained in Germany. Koehn worked for years on the project which was commissioned by St. Williams Catholic Church in Cleveland. This Nativity set, on loan from St. Williams Church, will be on display until Dec. 20. Koehn’s sculpture, nearly 8 feet in length, is made of linden wood which is native to Ohio and represents the topography and people of Ohio.
The larger part of the exhibit is in the Visitors Center on two floors. The international Nativities can be viewed in the 1819 schoolhouse. The scenes are created from a wide variety of materials, from different kinds of wood and metals to porcelain and crystal, stone and terra cotta. Some pieces are even made of recycled materials such as newspapers and pop cans. A life-size Nativity is displayed on the village grounds.
International sets are made of materials native to their individual countries. The characters and scenes reflect the people and clothing of each culture. For example, one Nativity from Kenya and another from Uganda incorporate the use of banana bark, leaves and wood. Several Nativities from Israel are made of olive wood. Some pieces from Mexico are made from seeds and gourds.
In the schoolhouse, children can play an “I Spy” game and try to spot unique pieces among the displays - a baboon in a Nativity from Swaziland, a crèche made of tin foil, a coconut shell. A special children’s room is also available in the Visitors Center second floor area.
One part of the display on the second floor exhibit extends along an entire wall, depicting the life of Jesus Christ, from his birth to his ministry, his crucifixion and resurrection. Also, in the Visitors Center theater, a six-minute movie entitled “Luke 2” is shown.
The village, open for tours year around at no charge, has been restored as it was when the early settlers, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, lived there in the early 1800s. Besides the Visitors Center, which is a replica of an 1899 grist mill, and the 1819 schoolhouse, the village includes the Newel K. Whitney Store, Newel K. Whitney Home, John-son Inn, an ashery and sawmill. For more information call the Visitors Center at (440) 256-9805.
