“How beautifully you have portrayed the Nativity!” said Mrs. Rufus to her students. “The characters are so realistic that it's hard to believe you made them yourselves. “Perhaps you should move that ox some
distance away. He appears to be eyeing Baby hungrily!”

The children laughed. “We've enjoyed this project, Ma'am,” said Sridevi, “Our Art master helped us sculpt and paint the figures. We hope that the finished product will remind people of the first Christmas.”
“That gives me an idea!” exclaimed Mrs. Rufus.

“Ma'am, you aren't going to convert this activity into an English lesson,” protested Varun.
“Why not?” said Mrs. Rufus. “It's a great opportunity to teach you words linked to the festival. Let's begin with Christmas. It was formerly the Old English Christes masse—literally ‘mass of Christ’. Next, Bethlehem. We associate it with peace, but from it we derive a word that means confusion.  In the fifteenth century, the priory of St. Mary of Bethlehem in London was turned into a hospital for the mentally ill.

“From the noise therein we get bedlam—a corruption of Bethlehem. Can anyone think of a flower that stems from one of the lead players in the Christmas story?”
“Marigold,” said Asha promptly.
Mrs. Rufus nodded. “The plant with yellow or orange flowers is named after the mother of Jesus. As for these angels (from the Greek for messengers) precariously poised above the Holy Family - - - from our conception of them as bright and airy beings comes angel cake---light-textured and delicately flavoured; also angel shark, so called on account of its wing-like fins. Then again, it was angelic of your class to work hard to complete this Christmas task.

“We need no angel to tell us that you haven't finished with us, Ma'am,” said Gautam chuckling.
“Right,” said the teacher. “After all, you are as intelligent as the Wise Men or Magi, who followed a star to the Christ Child. 'Magi' is the plural of the Persian magus
—a person once credited with supernatural powers.
“Shepherd is easier,” remarked Varun, finding the session more interesting than he cared to admit. I suppose it just means herder of sheep. Aren't we neglecting the cattle, Ma'am?”
Mrs. Rufus smiled. “Manger—a feeding trough for livestock—that features in several carols, has the same original root as that, far from poetic, infectious animal disease — mange!”