Nonbeliever here. Don’t mean to be disrespectful of peoples’ beliefs. And I imagine the are likely numerous answers to my question. But I was wondering what the more common reasons are for people to have religious statues in front of their homes. Here in the US, I’m primarily talking about statues of Jesus and Mary. Is it just a Catholic thing?
We were walking the dog past a condo building, and one balcony had a little statue of Jesus in one corner and Mary in the other. Then there is the always popular Mary-in-a-bathtub. Do the statues give the owner comfort? Are they interested in proclaiming their faith to passersby? Do they encourage in some prayer/meditation? A reminder of their faith? Does the owner just thing they look nice? Do they think God will spot them when he sends a tornado their way, and spare the believers? Other possibilities?
Come to think of it, why do people hang crucifixes? From my youth, I remember the handsome blonde Jesus, and the sacred heart. I assume it is something different from nonchristian religions, some of which I understand encourage home shrines.
I’m sure this sounds ignorant. I hope it is not overly offensive.
Some people need to express their beliefs openly. Others are more comfortable keeping their beliefs private. I know two different Christians who will never talk about anything other than their personal relationship with Jesus. That’s all they want to talk about. Conversations with them tend to be somewhat limited.
I know a Wiccan who insists on wearing a pentagram about the size of a hub-cap. It isn’t enough to wear a pentagram: it has to be clearly visible fifty yards away.
It’s like people with their flags. Some practice patriotism privately, and some plaster their entire car and house with flags.
Maybe it’s a symptom of insecurity? Their beliefs don’t feel “real” to them unless they’re proclaimed as openly as possible?
You see a Mary-in-a-bathtub while you’re walking around, depressed, and maybe you feel like Mary is looking down on you at that moment, interceding on your behalf.
No different IMHO than having a statue of a dragon (like I do). You put it there because you like it - in the case of religious statuary maybe the owner gets a bit of spiritual comfort to boot.
Yeah, ask Catholics. A lot of protestants think it’s horrible, and believe it was specifically prohibited by Scripture. Hence those statues of the ten commandments from the 1960s rather than depicting people.
Not that we take it as far as Muslims. I mean, that Jesus statue in Eureka Springs isn’t Catholic in origin. But it also is not supposed to be used in worship. It was part of a tourist trap/theme park. And no one seems to freak out. Same with the nativity–it’s seen as depicting the event. Outside of weird movies, you don’t worship “baby Jesus.”
Yeah, it’s a Catholic thing. I happen to think it’s pretty cool; I love Catholic iconography for the same reason I enjoy bathyspheres, zeppelins, and Burma Shave signs: they are all archaic, morbid, and bizarre.
Catholics also like the Big Scary Statue thing, which is very close to my heart. Check out the Oratory of the Sacred Cave in Cadiz, Spain…the hideous Crucifixion scene there influenced Haydn’s brilliant sacred cantata The Seven Last Words of Christ.
The other common name for them is “Mary on the half-shell.” Now you know.
St. Joseph is very popular among Italian Americans. A lot of Irish Americans go with the Infant of Prague, and if you are going to go fancy, you even have different seasonal outfits for your Infant of Prague.
I think in communities where they are popular (and I’m from an area where they are common, but now I live in an older, predominantly Italian American neighborhood and they are LEGION) it’s mostly on people’s radar as a thing you might have in your yard. Mary in a bathtub, some planters, a bird bath, etc. To make A LOT of generalizations, it’s not really proselytizing to others (that’s not a huge feature of Catholicism) but more like showing you are the member of a community, akin to displaying a national flag or a sports team logo. Some people will use it as a reminder to say a short prayer or cross themselves on their way in or out of the house, but it would be unusual for someone to literally use it as a shrine for dedicated prayer. I am quite confident that some of it is competitive landscaping.
The crucifix inside your house is specifically to bless your actual house. A nice crucifix used to be a common wedding gift for Catholics, with the assumption that the bride and groom would get married and move into a new home. I know some younger Catholics prefer to have a more simple cross displayed (as in, without the dead guy on it) … and old Catholic ladies of my mom’s generation sometimes look down at that. I’m not really sure if there is a guideline on that from the Church, or if the older ladies are just being peevish about kids today. The other way Catholic thing to do is to put your palms from Palm Sunday on your crucifix/cross, where they dry out all year and then you forget to bring them back to church and then you feel guilty about throwing them in the trash.
Not far from where we live, on a busy road, is a house with a shrine right by the sidewalk. There’s a statue of Mary and some other knick-knacks, plus a marble bench, all among a blanket of white gravel. I think the whole thing lights up at night. I’ve never seen anyone sitting on the bench.
I wonder whether Mary gets stolen as often as my Hillary sign.
When we moved into this house, every goddamn room, including bathrooms, had a crucifix on the wall. Shouldn’t the previous owner have taken them with them? My father wanted to just throw them out, but my mother put them in a box and left it at a nearby church.
I have a Buddhist shrine in my house with several statues. It is kind of encouraged. It’s a place to light candles, burn incense, make offerings etc. It’s just another part of my household really.
I have a very nice replica (in reduced scale, thank goodness!) of Motherland Leading Troops to Victory from the war memorial on the battleground hill at Volgograd (erst Stalingrad.)
Does anyone make and sell a replica of the Goddess of Democracy statue from Tienanman Square and the protests/massacre there? I’d love a small one for my home.
All of the other reasons apply too, but mostly, I think it’s just that people do it because that’s what people do around there. You see all of your neighbors putting up shrines, so you do too.
I can honestly say that I have never once heard any sort of guidelines in church, Sunday school, or any sort of church publication on the proper format or style for displaying crosses in one’s home. If there are any little old ladies disapproving of non-corpus crosses, it’s probably because they think they look Protestant, but ecumenicism has been the big thing for decades now. And so far as I know, the Catholic preference for displaying the corpus on the cross has never been anything more than a matter of style.
