Around the middle of December, David and I went downtown to see the lights on Temple Square. While always gloriously beautiful, they pulled out all the stops this year and made the display larger and more diverse than ever before.
In previous years, this beautiful white stone nativity scene has occupied a single spot on the lawn; this year, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were placed in the middle of the reflecting pool directly in front of the temple, with the shepherds and wise men placed on either side of the pool on the grass.
One new addition (I should say hundreds of new additions) were these painstakingly beautiful luminaries. They were placed on the low walls surrounding the gardens, and each said Merry Christmas in a different language. Others were purely decorative, like the one below. In addition to the paper luminaries, there were dozens of metal ones as well, each showing different scenes from Christ's life.
The area around the Church Office Building was also included in the display this year. About a dozen nativity scenes were placed on various bits of lawn, each representing a different culture. The trees were all still characteristically covered in lights from root to tip, but they functioned this year as a backdrop instead of a focal point. The cultural nativities were my personal favorite. Besides representing the increasing diversity present in the Church and its worldwide growth, they carried a message of openness and acceptance, in essence saying that the Church acknowledges that the birth of the Savior was an incredible gift to the entire world, meant to benefit every individual, regardless of culture or religion. It was a beautiful message, and one that I personally hope the Church continues to spread.
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