Holy Land cross for the annual Kilkenny City church Crib Walk

The annual Church Christmas Crib Walk will take place on St Stephen's Day, beginning at the Friary Church at 11am.

This is the 23rd year of the walk which traditionally in Kilkenny took place on St Stephen's Day. This year, the walk will join the community of Bethlehem who celebrate Holy Crib Day on St Stephen's Day, after the feast of Christmas Day, walkers and pilgrims gather to ask for health and happiness for the year ahead.

This year the Crib Walk will have a special prayer for peace in the Middle East and Bethlehem. The walk will be led by Fr Willie Purcell.

"It's great to join with our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land who like us in Kilkenny will make the pilgrim walk of the cribs of the shrines in the Holy Land, this is something we have been doing for years but this year adds a special dimension to the event," he said.
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"A blessed Bethlehem cross from the Holy Land will be given to each walker. We begin at the Capuchin Friary on Friary Street because about 1223AD, something marvelous happened. St Francis made a living crib, an enactment of the birth of Christ near the town of Greccio on Christmas Day, and so popularized the making of a crib scene in our homes, workplaces, churches, hospitals, schools, and shops at Christmas. And so, out of Greccio was made a new Bethlehem!

"Francis stood before the manger, overcome with joy, and Mass was celebrated over the crib. After the celebration, Francis insisted that care be taken of the hay and the animals, reminding us to take care of every created thing even after we no longer need it! This is the 800th anniversary of the first crib by St Francis."

The annual Crib Walk of the Churches in Kilkenny is a reflective walk on the meaning and traditions of church cribs in Kilkenny. Each Church has its own tradition in its Christmas Crib, and its design and structure often reflect not only the community of the present, but the communities of the generations gone before who formed and built the various church cribs.