Quote:
Originally Posted by JCB
Christingle ?
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Usually an Advent celebration. The candle came before the orange:
A
Christingle is a symbolic object, related to the
pomander, used in the
advent services of many
Christian denominations. It has its origins in the
Moravian Church.
At Christmas 1747, Germany, Bishop Johannes de Watteville thought about how he could explain the love of Jesus to everyone, and what Christmas really meant to the children in the church. He decided to make a simple symbol to express the message of Christmas in a fresh and lively way. Pastor Johannes de Watteville gave each child a lighted candle wrapped in a red ribbon, with a prayer that said "Lord Jesus, kindle a flame in these dear children's hearts". This was the first .
Many years later, in 1968, John Pensom of
The Children's Society introduced Christingle services to the
Anglican Church, where the custom spread quickly. It is celebrated sometime around Christmas. Various hymns about Christingle include:
The Christingle begins with an orange,
We haven't come far and
When the frost turns the berries red.
[1]
The story of the Christingle is that there were three children, who were very poor, but wanted to give a gift to Jesus, like the other families at church were doing. The only nice thing they had was an orange, so they decided to give him that. The top was going slightly green, so the eldest cut it out, and put a candle in the hole. They thought it looked dull, so the youngest girl took her best red ribbon from her hair and attached it round the middle with toothpicks. The middle child had the idea to put a few pieces of dried fruit on the ends of the sticks. They took it to the church for the Christmas mass, and whereas the other children sneered at their meager gift, the priest took their gift and showed it as an example of true understanding of the meanings of Christmas.