Nativity scenes abound at Christmas but very few become a trending topic, as has happened with the one in Ourense, which has been worthy of a campaign promoted on change.org to ask for its removal as it is understood to be made up of horrifying figures, unrecognizable animals and castles. of balance, made with boxes of appliances.
And if that wasn’t enough, the Child Jesus has been missing since Friday, while one of the figures is missing a hand.
Since it was installed in the Plaza de Bispo Cesareo, there are not a few users who have chosen to pull humor to refer to the strange manger that houses the city and that they already compare with an episode of Walking Dead, the yonkizombies and even with the Ecce Homo de Borja, which came -the latter- to become the topic of the moment due to its defective restoration, as stated by a user.
The strange manger departs so much from traditional canons that a tweeter warned that it can “cause severe trauma on youth” and “anxiety crisis” after the “vision of the Romans.”
They also compare it to “a mess of Chantada cars after three katrinas.” “If this is Jacome’s Living Nativity Scene, you have to call 061”,
Such is the expectation, that even one user proposed “building a canal from the Barbana River to the Alameda so that the floods carry away” the Belen de Jacome, alluding to the mayor of Ourense, Gonzalo Perez Jacome.
At the moment, this nativity scene is on its way to becoming a trending topic, at the height of Vigo’s Christmas in terms of media coverage, although with more doubts about its quality.
The scenery, made up of a Virgin Mary and a Saint Joseph, with slanted eyes, the animals and two Roman centurions who guard the castle of Pontius Pilate, have become fodder for “memes”.
Meanwhile, from the city council they try to weather the barrage of criticism as best they can.
“It did not turn out as we expected,” a disappointed Mario Gonzalez, Councilor for Culture of the consistory, told Efe. The Orense City Council had awarded its installation and maintenance to a company directly, with a smaller contract, for a final cost of 18,000 euros.
In fact, he explained that the local government sought at all times to open this process to all the companies that wanted to participate but only two showed up, one of which was discarded because the proposal “did not meet” the requirements that were requested.
After seeing the figures of the winning company, they even considered the possibility of “raising” the manger, the councilor has admitted.
For now, the controversial Belen has led to the launch of an initiative on change.org to request its withdrawal “as soon as possible”, since they equate it with “a nightmare” more typical of a “grim” event.
In it, his detractors criticize the presence of “horrifying figures, dressed in cheap costumes, unrecognizable animals” and “castles made with boxes of electrical appliances”, which, they warn, “can put an end to the spirit of Christmas in any family”.
