Our survey of new Nativity sets in the Sacred Art Pilgrim creche collection takes us this week to Varanasi (also known as Benares) in North India, the holiest of Hinduism’s seven sacred cities. Local artisans hand craft Christian Nativity scenes in the same style as the brightly-colored wooden toy figures of Hindu gods and goddesses, birds, and animals, purchased by the millions of pilgrims who come to wash in the Ganges River. The twelve-piece set in my collection, now on view in the gallery of the Nativity Sets and Scenes page in the Schools of Sacred Art Section, has been carved out of single pieces of eucalyptus wood and decorated in a traditional dotted pattern by an unknown Indian folk artist. The figures include the Holy Family, the Three Kings, a venerable shepherd and five delightful creatures, blending the real and mythological, which appear to be a donkey, camel, sheep, calf and dog. (John Kohan)