Azvenzkranzkerzenglanz

[pne]

Stella looked for an Advent wreath the other day, but couldn't find one. So she decided to make her own.

Here's the result:

She said that she estimates a wreath that size with those decorations would cost about €20 in a shop; she paid about €5 for the raw materials.

So yay! We have an Advent wreath again this year.

(For those of you who are not familiar with Advent wreaths: they're a German(?) custom, whereby one candle is lit on the first Sunday in Advent (the four weeks leading up to Christmas), two candles on the second Sunday (i.e. the first one plus another, new one), three on the third, and four on the fourth. Symbolising, I suppose, how things get lighter and lighter leading up to the coming into the world of the Light Himself, or something like that. Or celebrating the upcoming solstice and the fact that days will soon start getting longer again, for all I know. At any rate, I think it's a nice tradition.)

Comments

[eva]

Actually, the Adventskranz was invented by someone whose name I have forgotten, who was (I think) a Reverend in an orphanage. He wanted to make visible to the kids how long it would be until Christmas. They started out with 24 candles, out of which four were larger for the Sundays, and as that wasn't terribly practical, they somehow arrived at four over time. I think they did it without the wreath, though, at first - of course all of the "lights/green stuff/solstice" things are also in there.

Nice wreath! And 20 € looks right. Those things are insanely expensive. I got a non-wreathy Gesteck with medium-sized candles, and even that was 9 €.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Actually, the Adventskranz was invented by someone whose name I have forgotten, who was (I think) a Reverend in an orphanage. He wanted to make visible to the kids how long it would be until Christmas. They started out with 24 candles, out of which four were larger for the Sundays, and as that wasn't terribly practical, they somehow arrived at four over time.

Ah, now that you mention it, ISTR reading something along those lines in the Hamburger Abendblatt recently. (Which I obviously promptly forgot.)

[crschmidt.livejournal.com]

Generally in the states (at least, in the Catholic houses I grew up/around), the third candle is a different color -- three purple and one pink. Sayeth Wikipedia:

"In the Catholic tradition, three of the candles are violet-coloured, and one is rose-coloured. The violet candles symbolize faithful expectation, and the rose candle symbolizes joy and hope. These colours mirror the colours of the priest’s vestments used during the Sundays of Advent."

Just a note on religious differences in the significance of the wreath.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Interesting, I'd never heard of that colour tradition.

Incidentally, I read an article the other day in a newspaper saying that the candles are to be lit in a counter-clockwise direction -- the first I had ever heard of such a mandate. In the tradition you know, is there a preferred/prescribed direction you light the candles in?

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

In my mom's Lutheran church (obviously a lot of German borrowing there) we had these, but not the colors that crschmidt mentioned - I remember them just being white like in your pictures. I think they were lit clockwise but I can't really remember. Certainly, nobody explicitly pointed out any significance one way or the other about direction.

[crschmidt.livejournal.com]

Instinctively, I believe I would light clockwise, and I don't have a memory of any specific tradition in that regard... but it's been a number of years since I was around a Catholic house during Advent.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Really? I'm sure I've discussed it in my journal since that's the tradition I was raised with as well. Last night at a party, someone asked what the RCC term was for the pink candle/vestment Sunday. "Gaudete ["rejoice y'all!"] Sunday" according to former vestment-wearer monshu.

[kait-the-great.livejournal.com]

Advent wreaths are "the" Christmas ritual in the church I was raised in -- I still use the first Sunday of Advent as the beginning of my Christmas season instead of the day after US Thanksgiving or the first of December.

The candles were named Peace Love Hope and Joy (three purple, one pink) and there was a fifth candle in the middle (white) called the Christ candle. There was a ritual every week in church to light the candles thus far plus one.

I would be FASCINATED if it was first a solstice ritual and then got snapped up by the church.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Which church was that, if you don't mind my asking?

[kait-the-great.livejournal.com]

The United Church of Canada, which might be the most liberal church that's still actually a Christian church.

[psitticism.livejournal.com]

We always had the three purple candles and the one pink for Gaudete Sunday growing up, but I've noticed most Catholic churches in my area have recently started using four dark blue candles instead. I'm not sure why. I much prefer the multicolored-ness I grew up with. We have a ceramic advent "wreath" with four sculpted angels that I absolutely love, but it's hard to find candles narrow enough for it these days. So my mom makes one each year at her church, much like the one Stella made, but with taller, blue candles. The church gives away the materials. It's quite nice, but I am always a bit nostalgic for the way it used to be!

[schnurble.livejournal.com]

This is very pretty!