Vietnamese Christmas Nativity Burning
In 1968, with the help of friends, Skaggs constructed a life size Vietnamese Nativity scene. He attempted to erect the sculpture in Central Park on Christmas Day so that he and his friends, dressed as American soldiers carrying plastic and wooden weapons, could burn it to the ground to protest the war in Vietnam.
Skaggs had announced his intentions to Bob Fass on WBAI Radio prior to Christmas day. When the three truck loads carrying the sculpture and the actors arrived at the designated site, they discovered that the place was swarming with not only supporters and onlookers, but journalists and police. He quickly moved the event to a nearby vacant site. And the group feverishly erected the sculpture which consisted of a wood framed manger covered with bamboo shades; paper maché pigs with police caps, badges, and guns; white middle class sheep with attaché cases; a huge camel which represented Hubert Humphrey; three beheaded wise men which portrayed dead Jack and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King; a Vietnamese baby Jesus in the manger; and Vietnamese peasant sculptures of Mary and Joseph.
Before the Nativity could be completely erected and burned, the police and journalists found the protesters. Many were arrested. The headline of a piece that appeared in The New York Times the next day read, "Yippie 'Nativity Scene' Leads to Tickets for Littering," which did not adequately portray the intent of the piece.
© 1997 Joey Skaggs