The Fishwife - the Fourteenth (14th) Essential Santon for a Provençal Creche
The Fishwife - Poissonnière (French) - Le Peissouniero (Provençaux) is number 14 on the list of the top 20 Essential Santons for a Provençal Creche. She is available in all four of the Marcel Carbonel Santons sizes offered by My Growing Traditions. Colorfully dressed, she has a portable scale (copper steelyard) fastened to her belt and with a proud humility commonly brings a bountiful gift of not one, but two, basketfuls of fish to the manger.
As a fishwife, or fishlass, she is a woman who sells or works with fish. She is not necessarily a married woman, as the word "wife" here simply means woman. She is the female version of a fishmonger. Of course, she may indeed be the fishmonger's wife. She may be rough around the edges, but she is a hearty soul - one who has existed in Provencal life "forever" and thus, equally important to the Santons creche. She is celebrated in this 1995 French postage stamp.
We picture her as the wife or co-worker of the Fisherman with the Net, also available in all four of the Santons sizes that we have available.
In the pastorale of Jean-Francois Audibert, Pistachié is the husband of Honorine, a fishwife.
Man with a Drum - Tambourinaire – the Thirteenth (13th) Essential Santon for a Provençal Creche
The Man with a Drum - Tambourinaire (French) - Lou Tambourin (Provençaux) is number 13 on the list of the top 20 Essential Santons for a Provençal Creche. He is available in all four of the Marcel Carbonel Santons sizes offered by My Growing Traditions.
The drummer is distinguished and colorful in his band "uniform." Carbonel has him dressed in a grey, wide-brimmed hat, a black jacket over a white shirt adorned by a red cravate, and white trousers with a broad ban of red wool called a "taiolo" around his wasit.
The man with the drum is a popular figure in the world of Santons. He is no ordinary drummer, being: the earliest Provencal musician, instrumental in the creation of the Farandole, and, to this day, present in Christmas and other important village celebrations.
The Carbonel workshop also offers a Woman with a Drum - the Femme Tambourinaire - in two sizes: Sizes #3 (Grande) and #2 (Elite).
Their instruments, the "galoubet" (a three-finger holed pipe, record, flute, or fife)
and the "tambourin" (a long cylindrical drum)
are the two instruments traditional to Provence.
The galoubet dates back to 1723 and is a unique pipe that is played only with the left hand. The tambourin dates from the 16th century and is played with the right hand using a hammer called a massette (the massette is shown beneath the galoubets in the photo below). The two instruments, played by one musician at the same time, work perfectly together providing the melody (the galoubet) and the rhythm (the drum).
Daniel Foley, 1959 book Little Saints of Christmas: The Santons of Provence, tells of the legend of "Galoubet" and how it was he who initiated the dance of the Farandole. According to the tale, Galoubet (and, yes, the legend has his name as the same as the name of his flute), the drummer, was playing at a part on Christmas Eve. Midnight curfew came, yet "on that night of nights, no one seemed to have any notion of retiring. So Galoubet played on and the young folks continued to dance. Suddenly a patrol arrived at the square. But it did not disturb him, and the dance continued. Despite his weariness, he wandered toward the outskirts of the town, followed by the dancers. Early morning risers rushed to their windows to see what was going on.... the dance continued, and as the people of Provence will tell you, this was the beginning of the Farandole, the best-loved of all the folk dances. It had been created to do honor to the Christ Child, and so the merry troupe made their way to the manger, for Bethlehem was close by. Everything had been set topsy-turvy that night, and no one seemed to know why. The dancing stopped and the gaiety subsided as the boys and girls approached the manger, and all knelt down to give their homage. But to Galoubet, prayer was music. It was all he knew. On he went, playing the music of the Farandole." (Foley, p. 110)
For photos of the history and workshop of Carbonel enjoy our Marcel Carbonel Santons board on Pinterest.
Carbonel Santons Shepherd Gift Sets
It was to the shepherd that the Angel came to announce the birth of Jesus - the Shepherd spread the word and summoned the Provencal villages to the manger. Thus, the Shepherd can be considered the pivotal Santon in the Provencal creche. Each year his role is celebrated across Provence in Christmas Eve services.
At midnight, the service begins with the Shepherd's Carol, the Carol Pastre di mountagno.
My Growing Traditions has created Marcel Carbonel Santons Shepherd gift sets in three sizes. Size #3 (Grande),
Size #2 (Elite),
and Size #1 (Cricket).
Each set includes the Young Shepherd, his herding dog, a standing sheep and a hand-carved tree (Spanbaum) from the Erzgebirge, Germany and is at a special price providing savings over purchasing the Santons separately. All are tucked neatly into a gift box from My Growing Traditions and include a My Growing Traditions Shepherd card.
For photos of the history and workshop of Carbonel enjoy our Marcel Carbonel Santons board on Pinterest.
Mr. Jourdan – the Twelfth (12th) Essential Santon for a Provençal Creche
Mr. Jourdan - Monsieur Jourdan (French) is number 12 on the list of the top 20 Essential Santons for a Provençal Creche. He is available in three of the Marcel Carbonel Santons sizes offered by My Growing Traditions: Size 3, Size 2, and Size 1.
Stemming from the early Christmas play, the Pastorale of Antoine Maurel, Mr. Jourdan and his wife, Margarido, are symbols of the middle class. Margarido is the eighth essential Santons for a Provencal Creche, and clearly where she goes, he goes.
Margarido is infamous as a woman with a very bad temper who nags her husband. In the Pastorale, Roustido belatedly, as a latecomer, and in the middle of the night, beckons the couple to scurry to the Stable. Margarido comfortably and proudly rides her donkey, while trying to hurry along her husband as he trudges along beside them.
Mr. Jourdan is nattily dressed in his "opera hat, cravate, embroidered waistcoast, white stockings and shoes with silver buckles." He brings a basket filled with food to the nativity. (Carbonel Dictionary)
You may enjoy our Pinterest Board on Marcel Carbonel Santons for photos of history and the making of Santons.
Traveled Companion
New for 2013, the Traveled Companion brings to your Christmas tree a remembrance of all those special trips in your life. This charming ornament is from Inge-Glas (No. 1-090-13, 2-3/4" tall).
Travel is one of those things that we all dream about.
High on our list are return trips to Provence (the home of all things Santons) - this guide book full of gorgeous photos and our Pinterest Board on Provence allow us places to feast on wonderful images of the area,
to Neustadt, Germany - the home of Inge-Glas' Historical German Christmas Museum,
and, to the Erzgebirge, Germany - the home of German Christmas, where we delight each visit in returning to the Ore Mountain Toy Museum in Seiffen.
A dream is to follow the German Toy Road and to extend that road south into Tirol, Northern Italy.
And, ultimately, a visit to Dresden and its Christmas Market - the oldest Christmas Market in Germany.
Celebrate your travels - past and future - with the Traveled Companion.
Bartholomew – the Eleventh (11th) Essential Santon for a Provençal Creche
Bartholomew – Bartoumieu (Provençaux) is number 11 on the list of the top 20 Essential Santons for a Provençal Creche. He is available in all four Marcel Carbonel Santons sizes offered by My Growing Traditions.
A character from the nativity plays (pastorales), Bartholomew, the village innkeeper (the word innkeeper is l'Oste in Provençaux), is proudly featured on Marcel Carbonel's brochures. He is one of the most loved and comical characters of the Provençal nativity and is, in fact, often the hero of these tales. He is a simple chap: friendly, cheerful, and an all around genial soul - looking at the world with a thoroughly positive nature. He has a tendency to get a little too tipsy from time to time and the miracle he receives upon reaching the nativity is to be cured of his drunkenness.
In his hurry, he has hastily dressed and his clothing is in a bit of disarray. He traditionally brings cod (essential to the Provençal dish l'aioli) and baskets of food to the Christ Child.
For photos of the history and workshop of Carbonel enjoy our Marcel Carbonel Santons board on Pinterest.
Pistachié – the Tenth (10th) Essential Santon for a Provençal Creche
Pistachié is number 10 on the list of the top 20 Essential Santons for a Provençal Creche. He is available in all four Marcel Carbonel Santons sizes offered by My Growing Traditions. He wears a cotton cap and has evidently dressed rather quickly as his trousers are held up by a single strap of his bracers. As the Carbonel Dictionary notes, he holds a lantern in one hand and a bucket in the other in Sizes #2, 1, and Puce, and a lantern and a broom in Size #3.
He is a figure drawn from numerous early Christmas plays, especially Antoine Maurel’s Pastorale, but others as well, and each portrays him with a slightly different personality. In the nativity he carries presents to the Christ Child. A farmhand, he is timid--even a little fearful--and not very bright, but he is jovial and a willing helping hand. In Maurel's Pastorale he adds comic relief to the play when it takes the entire village to rescue him after he falls into a well trying to fetch Margarido's donkey some water. And, he is renown for being a womanizer. His name, derives from the pistachio tree,
a common Provençal scrubland shrub. The pistachio is said to be an aphrodisiac.
In the pastorale Yvan Audouard of Jean-Francois Audibert, Pistachié is the husband of Honorine, a fishmonger.
