This post shows a picture of the Advent wreath at St Andrew’s Church.
An Advent wreath or Advent crown is an evergreen wreath which contains four candles which symbolise the four Christian concepts of hope, peace, joy and love as well as representing the four weeks of Advent in the liturgical calendar leading up to the birth of Christ.
One candle is lit on each Sunday leading up to Christmas Eve to symbolise the passage of the four weeks.
The circular wreath itself represents the infinite love of god and its green foliage the hope of eternal life brought by Christ.
On occasion, a fifth candle is introduced called a Christ candle which is first lit on Christmas Eve, the beginning of the traditional Christmastide (24th December to 5th January ) and remains lit for the whole period of Christmastide.
The wreath’s tradition lay in the Lutheran church though it later spread to many other Christian denominations.
The wreath at St Andrews incorporates another traditional Christmas decoration, that of Christingle.
Christingle is a tradition that has its origin in the eighteenth century Moravian Church (Czech Republic) when children would carry a candle wrapped in a red ribbon into church for Christmas Eve Mass.
In 1968 the Moravian custom became popular in the UK when it was used to raise money for the Children’s Society.
The various items used in the Christingle are: an orange representing the world; a candle representing the light brought to the world by Christ; a red ribbon around the orange represents the blood of Christ; the sweets or dried fruit that decorate the orange represents the fruitfulness of the four seasons.
The centre section of the St Andrew’s wreath consists of four Christingle’s.