The Book: Mosaics of the First Christmas

What most of us know of the journey that Joseph and Mary made to Bethlehem is from the gospels of Matthew and Luke or the remembered words of lovely Christmas carols.  They tell us that Mary was in her ninth month of pregnancy and she rode on a donkey while Joseph walked along beside them on the way to Bethlehem. They were required by decree of Caesar Augustus to take part in a census of all people of the Roman Empire. The census journey took them to Bethlehem to register because Joseph was of the line of David and Bethlehem was the city of Joseph's family. But these writings, although evocative, really do not give us much information about a trip of ninety miles from the city of Nazareth in Galilee to the Mediterranean mountain region of Bethlehem. We wondered about that journey, the people they met, how they were helped by others, how they may have helped others, what was it really like to live in that Biblical time, etc. We have written nine original musical cantatas that became the impetus for the stories that developed from the secular and religious research as well as the words of the songs. It was very special to imagine the people and the events surrounding the trip to Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus. And thus our imaginings began………..