The First Sunday of Advent: Christingle

 

Today is the First Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the Western Liturgical Year and the traditional start of the Christmas Season.

The Christingle has its origins in the Moravian Church in the 18th century with  Bishop Johannes de Watteville of Marienborn.

The orange represents the world, the red ribbon the blood of Christ, the dried fruit represents the fruits of the earth and the four seasons, and the candle Jesus, light of the world.

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 meagre gift, the priest took their gift and showed it as an example of true understanding of the meaning of Christmas.