Bethlehem Village

I heard from a friend about Bethlehem Village, which happens south of us in Nelson County every year at a Baptist church. It is a modern-day reproduction of the village of Bethlehem, complete with Roman guards, a stable where Mary and Joseph can be seen, and all kinds of little shops and so on that would have existed in the real town of Bethlehem in Jesus' time. We put it in our calendar as it sounded like lots of fun and a good learning opportunity.

We walked into a tent, where a man dressed in a Roman soldier costume greeted us and handed us each a (fake) gold coin, so we could pay our taxes upon passing through the city gates. It was dark by 5 pm when we entered the village, and there were various fires burning around it (along with LOTS of mud from the nearly constant rain we have had lately and all year for that matter). We tossed our coins into a bucket and started meandering around to look at all the different little shops and stations.

The boys zeroed in on the Roman guards and were examining their outfits very closely, which is no surprise given that the outfits consisted of armor and other knight-like gear. The guys playing the guards were very knowledgeable and answered the many, many, maaaaaaany questions Theo and Willem asked them about every aspect of what they were wearing. Will my children go into theater? Set and costume design, perhaps? It is stunning at times how fully focused they are on costumes (either constructing or analyzing them).

We went on to visit the jail ("Mama, is it a real jail?"), the weaponry (lots of menacing items there which proved fascinating to both boys), the bakery, and all the other huts scattered around the village. Each station had very nice and knowledgeable people working in it, who told us a bit about the culture that related to their booth. It really did feel life-like at certain moments. (They even had a camel hanging out in a pen... he seemed pretty cranky.)

A choir sang some Christmas songs and lastly... we got a picture with the Roman guards. And then proceeded to ask (the same guy from the beginning) even MORE questions.* (That guard is pictured below on the left.)

Those guards were really in character.


Theo is wearing gray pajamas, which he likes to pretend are chain mail armor.

As soon as we got home, Theo started hunting a costume so he could look like one of the people at Bethlehem Village.

*We saw that same guard after exiting the village and guess what happened? They starting asking him an epic amount of questions again (third time)! Hahaha.

Spiderman, B.C version








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