Benino
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Legend has it that Benino or Benito is dreaming the very same nativity scene where he is sleeping, or, if you will, he is sleeping in the very same nativity scene that he is dreaming about. Because that nativity scene is a product of his dream, waking up Benino would immediately destroy it. Benino’s dream is not the result of the idle sleep of a tired young man. His sleep symbolizes a state of suspended consciousness, a moment when the man abandons his everyday logic and enters a different dimension, more open to the suggestions of the universe and of nature. A vision such as that of the nativity scene can spring from this surrender of human logic. That is why Benino is placed on the highest point of the nativity scene: because his vision, among a thousand alleys, slopes and cliffs, travels through a path full of symbols and interpretations (every shepherd, every building, every detail of authentic Neapolitan nativity sets has one) and flows into the grotto below, where Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus are lodged together with the mystery of the Nativity. What will happen when Benino will wake up? Will the nativity scene really break into pieces, and be replaced by a consciousness of the new world that has been dreamed?