Artist Hou Cheng-yu has designed and constructed 10 rice-straw Christmas trees, each of them bearing a handwritten blessing from Father Francois Verny.
The straw Christmas trees have been placed at the Jingliao Holy Cross Church, Jingliao Elementary School, the Molin Cultural Exhibition Hall, the 7-Eleven store by the Houbi Farmers’ Association’s Jingliao office, the Jingliao Tourism Service Center, the Dutch Well, the Daodaolai courtyard, the Tainan Education and Nursing Institution, the Huang Kuo-neng Historical House and Jingliao High School.
The rice straw used to make the Christmas trees was gathered from paddy fields after the harvest by Father Verny and members of his congregation, expressing the Catholic church’s idea of blending local features with its Western beliefs and traditions. Speaking in fluent Taiwanese, Father Verny said, “These are the Christmas trees from our town of Houbi.”
Photo: Wang Han-ping, Liberty Times
照片：自由時報記者王涵平
The Catholic Jingliao Holy Cross Church has this year laid on various exhibitions and activities that are full of memories and thanksgiving, including a Christmas oxcart street ride that does a tour of the straw Christmas trees dotted around the Jingliao neighborhood. There is also a “time and space” exhibition of images about the Jing-liao Holy Cross Church and an invitation to former students of the Holy Love preschool to go back and visit the school.
(Liberty Times, translated by Julian Clegg)
藝術家侯成育設計製作十座稻草耶誕樹，每一座都有神父韋方濟親筆祝福語。
稻草耶誕樹放在菁寮天主堂、菁寮國小、墨林文物館、菁寮後壁農會7-11、菁寮旅遊服務中心、荷蘭井、稻稻來、台南教養院、黃國能古厝、菁寮國中等處。
耶誕樹的稻草是由韋方濟神父與教友一起從收割後的稻田收集得來，展現菁寮天主堂將在地特色融入西方信仰傳統的用心。韋方濟以一口流利的台語說「這是咱後壁的聖誕樹」。
天主教菁寮聖十字架教堂今年策劃充滿回憶與感恩的「聖誕牛車踩街——稻草聖誕樹菁寮社區巡禮」、「時空的風景─菁寮天主堂映像展」與「聖愛幼稚園寶寶回娘家」的展覽與活動。
（自由時報記者王涵平）
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