Comment by Jesse Hake on December 1, 2011 at 11:43am

Grace Prensner

Comment by Allison Kobzowicz on December 2, 2011 at 3:08pm

I noticed in this painting the crowd of soldiers lurking just outside of the town. I think, from what I know of Bruegel, that this could be some kind of political nuance about a tyrannical group at the time, about how they want to shut out the coming of a saviour.

Comment by Caleb Hartman on December 2, 2011 at 8:09pm

Something interesting I noticed about this painting is that the birth of Christ is taking place in a manger opposite a church which seems to be run down and unfinished.  This could symbolize that the Church will be renewed by the coming of Christ who is the fulfillment of and the most important part of the Church.  In many instances through Scripture, God is described as the body of the Church and without a body which gives everything else structure, nothing can work together.  This Church in the painting is a picture of what the Church would be like if Christ had not come and renewed it.

Comment by Elizabeth Schwab on December 3, 2011 at 11:54am

I also noticed some soldiers (they look like they are carrying spears and halberds and swords at their belts) coming up to the door of the large building in the back of the town. This could be the soldiers sent by Herod to kill all the babies, in the hopes if killing Jesus. The soldiers lurking outside the town could be intent on the same purpose.

Comment by Edan Cope on December 3, 2011 at 6:57pm

The supposed lady on the ice I don't think is a lady. It seems to be a little girl, but strangely her face looks like that of an old hag. There could be quite a lot of meaning to this that we don't know. Also what she is doing is strange why sit on a sack and push on the ice with sticks?

Comment by Ellen Davis on December 3, 2011 at 9:55pm

Directly across from Jesus is a lamp. The tree stump may not look like much-just a piece of a wood. But as a lamp it is quite valuable, giving light to all around it. Jesus was/is just like that-he didn't seem like anything special, just the son of a carpenter. But he came and gave light to the world, to those who would accept him (just as the lamp only gave light to those around it). The fact that it is fire also harkens to the Old Testament when God led the Israelites by a pillar of fire.

Comment by Meg DelDuco on December 4, 2011 at 5:53pm

One word came to mind as I looked at Bruegel's depiction towards the bottom right of the painting. Weird.  A boy, or so I think, is sliding around the ice on some sort of wooden platform. Well, that's just kind of strange. But then it hit me (kind of hard, actually) and  I realized that he is sledding. In that era, sleds were self-propelled by sticks. But how is that significant to the painting? Above the boy, is who I assume as his mother, holding out her hand. Her position and expression suggest that she isn't very pleased that he's on the ice. Maybe because it's dangerous, maybe something else. Bruegel, in his paintings, shows human faults and sins. Even throughout the rest of the adoration of the magi , these things are seen. I believe this boy is signifying yet another fault. Possibly disobedience or  along those lines, but that is hard to determine.

Comment by Grace Prensner on December 4, 2011 at 7:05pm

If it is the dead of winter, then why have the birds not flown south? Why are they flyinging about andcasually sitting in the limbs of the barren trees? Christ's coming is an unnatural event, the grandeur of God revealing itself through a tiny baby, a beacon of new life for a dead world. Like the birds, who are a symnol of spring and new life, Christ chose to live in the cold, dark world so that he could  bring new life to all people.

Comment by Sharon Rose Keefer on December 4, 2011 at 9:51pm

I saw soldiers among the crowd.  Are they supposed to be Roman soldiers looking for the baby Jesus?

Comment by Seth Newkirk on December 4, 2011 at 11:19pm

The unfinished building in the front seems to look somewhat like the Colosseum (open roof, jagged top of the wall, pillars combined with windows) and all the villagers seem to be headed away from it and toward Jesus, indicating that Jesus is an attraction that is above the Roman games.  Did Brugel do this on purpose?  Also in response to Meg, the boy seems to be skating toward the 'Colosseum' and him representing a sin makes sense in this context.

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