Post date: Jan 16, 2014 2:45:21 PM
Here is a big difference between Nicaragua and the United States. In the U.S. we disallow any manger scenes on public property. In Nicaragua, the government offices construct and display scenes on a public street - and spend employee time guarding them against vandalism.
Avenida Bolivar in Managua is lined on both sides for about half a mile in the month before Three Kings day (January 6) with shoulder-to-shoulder scenes. Most of these are nativity scenes supposedly relating the story from the Gospel of St. Luke in the Christian Bible.
I took photos of some of these scenes both this year and last. A few of the scenes clearly identify the government agency sponsor, most do not.
New this year (or at least I don’t recall it from last year) was a display of farming technology, complete with six live goats. The department of Agriculture and Forestry had a nativity scene and a map of potential land use.
There was also a displayed poster of the alternate routes for the proposed canal project between Atlantic and Pacific oceans - designed for larger ships than can be handled by Panama and paid for by a Chinese billionaire.