to think someone should have got Mary a chair and some toast?

Can't remember why but I had frankincense on a flannel during my first labour. Aromatherapy was a big thing then.

@AnnoyedAsAllHeck He was a carpenter, not a sailor. But I reckon he used a staple gun. He probably brought it along because it’s always handy to bring your tools while you are visiting relatives “ Good to see you Joseph, do you mind having a look at this door, it’s sticking a bit, and the tables a bit wobbly too.” and used it to staple up a few sacks over the stable doorway to stop draughts.

Well you can understand that.

Joseph's sister's AIBU

My brother has just married a teenager, my brother is a widower and should know better.

The little strumpet is now pregnant, but she claims to be a virgin. My brother believes this nonsense and is going to bring the child up as his own.

He wants them both to visit us when the census is on.

AIBU to say there is no room because with this census we have 14 people staying already?

I thought the search for a place to stay suggested that Joseph’s relatives were pretty sniffy about the marriage and didn’t approve of poor Mary. She can’t have been having a great time in Nazareth either, if bumping along on a donkey seemed like a better option.

There's also a bit of theology that pain in childbirth comes from Eve's sin, and Mary (being sinless) could open her womb as easily and voluntarily as she might spread her fingers - so it wouldn't be painful.

When my dm gave birth to my older db, the midwives were all catholic nuns and encouraged her to offer up her labour pains as repentance, and to reflect on Eve’s sins. By the time I was born there were lay midwives and the experience was a bit more compassionate.

I was angel Gabriel and led the angels on at the wrong time. Also, my sister told me Gabriel was a boy so I was very upset.

At my daughter’s nativity it was all about penguins and turning your heating down. We had no clue what was going on.

Can I just say though that women giving birth in those times must have been so scared for their lives, and their babies? I often romanticise about living in more simpler times, but crikey…they were pretty tough back then.

Mary's belly button untied itself and poof, the baby was born. Joseph retied the belly button, since he was well versed in knots.

Well, reading all of the verse, on top of the donkey ride and painless birth, got my mind going in a direction no mind should go regarding that song.

Double "meanings" galore. 😳

Well, there were taxes and flights back then were quite expensive, especially when you reserved seats together. Then the cargo load of the donkey and the gifts and you find that the GFM doesn't go as far as it did 1000 years prior.

But, the good news is that tea and toast (and pretzels) were offered on the flight. For an extra fee.

Three valuable gifts, including gold, would be far more useful than a never-ending row of soft toys.

This puts me in mind of MN threads where people go ape about their in-laws announcing their children's births on FB and all the in-laws turn up without waiting to be asked.

AIBU? I have recently given birth. My DH cocked things up so I had to travel for ages at 40 weeks and we had nowhere to stay. I ended up giving birth in some outhouse. My baby's father (not DH - long story) took it upon himself to get his mates to tell a load of randoms about the birth and they all suddenly turned up when all I wanted to do was have some peace and quiet to recover and get some sleep. And I didn't even get a cup of tea. WIBU to go NC with the lot of them?

Well being men they couldn't ask for directions could they.

I love all the references to the donkey, it isn't in the Bible, but it has become a big bit of the tradition.

@ARealitycheck it can happen, giving birth with an intact hymen. It depends how stretchy you are.

The Angel Gabriel is the plum role. The longest and most difficult speech.

I've been to Loreto in Italy and been in the house where Jesus was born. It was carried to Italy by angels. Apparently.

The “stable” is a cave. At least, the alleged stable is a cave under the Church of the Nativity. It is historically correct that caves were often used as stables.

Bethlehem means house of bread, you would have thought they could have rustled up some toast 😂

divineinspirations · Yesterday 03:50
😂 ahhh. Like the NCT said it would be if I just relaxed and kept the room dim. Mary really is an inspiration to us all.

They told me that if I sang Yellow Submarine and breathed then it would be a doddle.
They lied. It wasn’t 🫣

I expect they undid her belly button. That’s what I worked out happened (aged about 5.) the baby could then slide out a bit like toothpaste.

If they had been sent by Evri they would have turned up in Herod’s wheelie bin.🙁

I was nativity Mary ! Got to sit down with my plastic baby, no cup of tea though.

Speaking as a Reception teacher, although Mary is seen as a plum role, all she usually has to do is sit still and not muck about (no offence 🤣). The roles of innkeeper, lead shepherd, wise men etc require more acting ability. I always had girl and boy angels (always popular) and farm animals and a camel (also quite popular). I used to ask the children what they wanted to be and tried to work round that.

I once made the wriggliest, most mischievous boy the Star of Bethlehem so he had to stand in full view and everyone could see what he was up to. He loved the role.

When I was 5 years old (1968) I played Mary in our school Nativity play. I seem to remember spending the vast majority of the time sitting down!

This takes me back to being a small child and playing "having a baby". We pretended whoever was the "mummy" was made to go to sleep by doctors and the baby cut out of her stomach. Dunno if someone in the group knew about cesareans or if that was the only way we could think of that a baby could get out!

In the version of the nativity I saw at my sister's school in about 1980, Mary "fell" of the stage - well she was pushed by a nameless angel, who gallantly stepped in.

@SarahAndQuack that's fascinating! Have you got any other medieval childbirth tales for us?

Now I don't claim to be an expert on female anatomy, but how the hell did he get out then? Nothing I recall about the nativity suggested caeserian. 😅