A manger or trough is a rack for fodder, or a structure or feeder used to hold food for animals. The word comes from the Old French mangier (meaning "to eat"), from Latin mandere (meaning "to chew").^[1]

Mangers are mostly used in livestock raising^[2] and generally found at stables and farmhouses. They are also used to feed wild animals, e.g., in nature reserves.

A similar trough providing drinking water for domestic or non-domestic animals is a watering trough and may be part of a larger watering structure called abreuvoir.

The manger in Christianity

The manger is associated with nativity scenes where Mary and Joseph, forced by necessity to stay in a room for animals instead of a guest room, used a manger as a makeshift crib for the Baby Jesus.^[3] (Greek: φάτνη phatnē; Luke 2:7).^[4]

Gallery

• 
  18th century limestone mangers at The Devil's Farmhouse in Mellieha, Malta.
• 
  Donkey eating apples from a steel trough
• 
  Nativity at Night by Geertgen tot Sint Jans, c. 1490.