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Advent Wreath Optimization: Christmastide
Advent Wreath Study for Christmastide
This is a great question. I’m piecemealing together a decent Advent wreath for the house this year. This caused me some reflection on this topic that I’d like to share and see what all you turn up doing research. First of all, I take the Advent wreath as an occasion to convey the mystery of the Incarnation. That’s the reality that drives the Advent wreath assembly process. From there, it became apparent that there are 4 or 5 time-tested Advent design traditions available going back centuries. I don’t want to violate those, and believe I’ve come up with an interesting angle that preserves the tradition but optimizes it.
Assumption: The basic building block governing Advent wreaths — in general — is the same.
From there, I’ve noticed there’s some Advent wreath variety in different parts of the world. For instance, I noticed Mona and Lisa have a different Advent wreath than what I’m familiar with, but I know their Advent wreath procedure is trying to say the same thing as mine as an added voice that I wish to honor. I want to honor Mona and Lisa’s tradition.
Because of that, I do like seeing the difference and it inspires further study. There’s a reversion to conformity of some type going on with each of the 4 or 5 Advent wreath variations. It’s definitely appealing since regardless of the meaning assigned to Advent wreath candle color arrangements, it’s the order of the lighting of the candles that stands out the most to me, because of the difference involved in my own tradition. This is powerful because it goes back to ever since I can remember.
Advent wreaths also remind me of happy thoughts, like how the Jägermeister recipe was settled upon, or the Coke formula, etc. There’s an additional nostalgic appeal that I really, really like.
Optimization
In order to optimize my own Advent wreath set up, I decided to expand it a little without affecting the visual aspect of the tradition. I don’t want to change it. In the USA, typically, a white pillar type candle goes in the middle and is lit last, on Christmas Day. There’s even some variety within that because there are either 3 or 4 purple candles, depending on if you incorporate a Week 3 pink (Shepherd’s) candle in your Advent wreath. The only difference: If I were to use a white 5″x10″ real bees wax pillar candle in the middle, it burns extremely slowly, and may last 12 days until Epiphany, which starts on January 6, 2022. This is known as the Christmastide Season and does not include Christmas Eve or Epiphany.
Christmastide is then December 25, 2021 through January 5, 2022.
To me, I didn’t disturb the Advent wreath at all with this optimization. I simply replaced the single paraffin wax center pillar white candle with a genuine bees wax candle of dimensions that allows for a continuous 12 day burn time. On top of extending reflection on the mystery of the Incarnation, I get more life out of my Advent wreath this way. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that Advent is over on Christmas Day, yet I light the white center pillar candle on Christmas Day, so Advent wreaths aren’t confined to just the Advent season. I’ve been wrong before, so that’s why I opened up this as a discussion item.
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30 Replies
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The real bees wax center white candle arrived and is ready, but it’s more like cream-colored than white. It is scentless, and hasn’t been lighted yet, so that may change. The only candle available close to the dimensions that would permit a 12-day continuous burn rate was a 3” x 9” version. There is a 5” x 10” real bees wax candle that will come close to 12 days continuous burn time of 288 hours but looking at this closely, I don’t think a 12” diameter Advent wreath has enough inner diameter to handle a 6” width center candle. These candles get pricey real fast because it takes 8 pounds of honey to yield 1 pound of bees wax.
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Hello Michael,
Those are beautiful candles, and made of bees wax in the centre and scented, nice.
I wasn’t familiar with symbolism of the Advent Wreath and Candles. Learn something new every day, and knowing this makes the Advent even more special:
Advent, which begins the Church’s liturgical year, began on Sunday, December 3. Advent encompasses the four Sundays and weekdays leading up to the celebration of Christmas.
The use of the wreath and candles during Advent are a longstanding Catholic tradition that was originally adopted by Christians in the Middle Ages as part of their spiritual preparation for Christmas.
The candles also have their own special significance. The four candles represent the four weeks of Advent, and one candle is lit each Sunday. Three of the candles are purple because the color violet is a liturgical color that signifies a time of prayer, penance, and sacrifice.
The first candle, which is purple, symbolizes hope.
The second candle, also purple, represents faith.
The third candle is pink and symbolizes joy. It is called the “Shepard’s Candle,” and is pink because rose is a liturgical color for joy.
On the fourth week of Advent, we light the final purple candle. This final candle, the “Angel’s Candle,” symbolizes peace. It reminds us of the message of the angels: “Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men.”
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Jung, you’re an awesome MLT fan.
Here’s a candy cane for you!
The Beatles did a Christmas Album every year. Looking back, I suppose they were trying to bottle lightning, as the saying goes. I do like research-minded persons and presentations because I’m ever learning. I don’t know all there is to know about the candles and the wreath. In a manner of speaking I couldn’t fully comprehend the reason for the season. Yet The Little Drummer Boy video is precisely why I’ll always be a MLT fan myself. For reasons like this, MLT is a remarkable group and in the best sorts of ways like The Beatles were. The MLT is/are a positive force in our world.
We all want love to win.
I’m forever dazzled by something as simple as an Advent wreath. I ask myself why that is, but to actually own and operate (for lack of better description) is noticeably uplifting. You are participating by doing, and the order matters, and that has an effect. In my mind, the candles are like a winding staircase in two opposite directions because you lit the 1st Week, so by the 3rd Week you can’t help but notice unevenness in candle heights.
It’s neat how the wreath melts away, but the song remains the same.
Another observation I keep coming back to is there’s a great deal of meaning assigned to every facet of an Advent wreath — regardless of what part of the world a given tradition coalesces around. Each tradition has an operational variation to it that’s not intended to disunify, but the exact opposite. Recognition of a tradition gives Advent wreaths a unifying power when everything on an Advent wreath serves an understood purpose. It seems once you learn it in one of the few traditions out there, that pattern sort of stays with you. That’s a powerful influence. I don’t see how anyone can improve upon the handful of centuries old traditions out there. They’re that good. I love learning about Mona and Lisa’s candle lighting sequence. They don’t forget. Something inside them tells them it’s time to light the candle. I take delight in those differences. We’re all saying the same thing with it but we’re different people at the same time.
To me, it’s sort of like the Jägermeister formula. That’s a bad comparison, but the thought behind it is, who can improve upon it? I don’t see what could better it.
In addition, I try to imagine I’m living in the formation period when Advent wreaths emerged, and my homework assignment is to design a Christmastime accoutrement that communicates the Incarnation… How would anyone even begin to try to do something like that? That’s a mind-bender. Well, these medieval guys are going to try. It’s quite an achievement.
I like it.
I haven’t tested the bees wax candle yet because of the pull of the tradition on me not to light it until Christmas Day. That’s different from very similar traditions. Some research I’ve turned up keep it a technically accurate “Advent Wreath” by lighting the center candle on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day, but Christmas Eve ends at midnight… That’s an interesting question of itself. How does that work? It takes a while to burn the center candle. I’ll record the results here starting in about 10 days. I suspect beforehand that the center candle will need to go to 6″ x 10″ pure bees wax to get the 288 hour (12-day) continuous burn. To accomplish that effect, I anticipate going from a 12″ inner diameter wreath this year to a 15″ wreath next year. I attached a photograph for you to take a look.
Mike
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That’s one of my favorite obscure Monkees songs, Michael. I’ve always been amazed that Don Kirshner allowed such a “grown up” sound on one of their early albums.
Correction: that song was post-Kirshner.
As long as we’re talking about Monkees and candles and Christmas, how about this one?
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I appreciate learning about the Advent wreath but i don’t know anything to contribute.
Merry Christmas soon.
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One thing I learned is purple is the ultimate representation of royalty. Jesus Christ was a royal claimant to the throne and an attempt was made on his life in infancy.
In The Monkees Christmas carol, Peter is holding incense probably because incense is one of the gifts from the 3 kings of the orient. Gold and myrrh were the two others, as you know. All of them speak to royalty and purple Advent candles are a summation.
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This Monkees song is half Spanish and half something else.
Can someone make sense of this? Thanks
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I don’t know right off, I’ll have to research about it and see. I noticed when it comes to all things about The Monkees, it’s almost always a happy discovery. That’s pretty much the legacy left by the group and individual members, and it’s likely the way they’d want to be remembered.
If you watch 8mm films of the making of Sgt. Pepper, you’ll see Mike Nesmith in the background watching the orchestra make the last long note of the song, “A Day in the Life”. They happened to be visiting at the time of the recording sessions and were invited to stop by. About a year later, I always wondered if Lennon sanded down his sunburst Epiphone Casino electric guitar to a natural wood color in order to look like Nesmith of The Monkees. It’s something John would probably do because he’s silly-minded and John loved that show also.
Nesmith was happy about his own songs. Listen to his comment at the end of a recent live show performance of Tapioca Tundra or The Door Into Summer.
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I’ve always felt that the strongest Monkees songs vocally were the ones where Mike and Micky were harmonizing, as in this one.
Fun fact: the backing musicians on this tour included Michael’s son Christian on guitar, and Micky’s sister Coco on vocals.
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Tom, Wikipedia has an article about Riu Chiu that includes the full lyrics and an English translation. Its origin is obscure, but it seems to draw from Spanish, Italian, and Catalan.
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Thanks David,
it reads like Catalan most of all.
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Mr. Fones actually contributed something spectacular to the Advent wreath that I hadn’t thought of before; he’s bringing voice to it through The Monkees video, and then asking about the differences that their tradition brought. We all agree that the video is happy, and hopeful of the future. The Monkees are holding candles while singing.
Anything learned or researched about Advent is going to be stellar by default. The star that led the 3 kings makes Christmas Eve ..stellar. It’s in the stars.
Let me preface all that a bit in mentioning Jung’s research on the Advent wreath. Jung is just as stellar in him mentioning the liturgical aspect. Even at home there’s something definitely going on about doing, versus watching. I built upon Jung’s point a little bit in that way.
Which brings me to my point:
The liturgical colors don’t quite match up to Advent wreaths. The white liturgical color doesn’t start until after midnight, when it’s Christmas Day. So how can lighting the white center candle on Christmas Eve be reconciled to the purple liturgical color? So, in my upbringing, the center white candle was almost always lighted on Christmas Day.
If the order of candle lighting is the most essential element or take-away in Advent wreaths, why would the colors clash when a given liturgical color comes into force? The white center candle on Christmas Day is the “minor” view (according to research source frequency). All sources allow for both varieties (Christmas Eve or Christmas Day) while maintaining the right order of the candle lighting, but the majority of sources propose lighting the white center candle on Christmas Eve.
Just saying.
You see, I caught Lisa red-handed pretending to light the white candle in the daily Advent calendar videos. Mona is in on it. You have to watch those two.
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For the 6th day of Christmas, 6 geese are laying is supposed to be representative of the 6 days of creation. This only makes sense if you consider all of the songbird references in the tune The 12 Days of Christmas, beginning with a Partridge in a pear tree.
FACT: The Tune The 12 Days of Christmas is loaded with songbirds.
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Christmas Eve is fast approaching.
What do I do about the Advent wreath?
There’s no household Advent wreath redundancy; there should be only one wreath per household. Given that, I want to get it down to a science, lock it in to the hard drive, and run this contraption every year until I’m gone. My life on Earth is but a vapor. Like candlelit Advent wreaths, it’s here and gone.
Arbitrary doesn’t work with Advent wreaths. Everything on the wreath has a purpose.
First of all, Advent wreaths are localized. They are immobile, and conform to the time zone that they occupy. A guy in Japan lights his first wreath candle starting at midnight, and 23 hours later some guy in Hawaii lights his first wreath candle because of how the world turns and the times and seasons of the various recognized conventions.
Given that reality the next question is which of the slew of times and seasons conventions work globally? Rather than GMT or UTC, would I not at least zero reference my time zone to Bethlehem in zero AD? Fair question. It’s important only insofar as the eternal entered time and space in the Incarnation. That’s it. Be ready to have an answer for that, but also appreciate the intensity involved in these optimization efforts.
As long as the wreath does the job adhering to some recognizable convention, it’s acceptable.
There are some things I felt necessary to know about Advent wreaths and to improvise an entire season with a single wreath. I’d want to transition only one wreath. That wreath is optimized when it allows transition from Advent to Christmastide.
A while back I sensed that order is the most prominent feature about these wreaths. After a careful study of the history of Advent wreaths it was determined that the most important aspect is order. This reality strikes me as a very ordered tradition. Also, I really do like candle wreaths in general.
OK, so the result of the research is that I sense the German tradition is strongest because — with the exception of the candle color(s) — the order is properly aligned. That is to say, similar Advent wreath traditions align 3 of 4 of their candle colors to the liturgical colors (the one exception is the 3rd Sunday pink “Shepherd’s” candle in SOME traditions). Advent is purple. If your candle colors don’t conform to the liturgical color in force, it’s OK, but, there’s no reason to not use purple and align it. Alright, so the pink color of the Shepherd’s candle comes into conflict with the liturgical color in force. That’s OK so long as the explanation is a good one but understand the German tradition aligns more things about the Advent wreath better.
This gets really interesting at this point.
Ideally, you’d want an Advent wreath to align to the calendar, the clock, and the liturgical color when it comes into force. Keep it simple. This would increase the wreath’s unifying power. In traditional German culture, the Advent wreath has no white center pillar Christ candle. That’s more true to the meaning of Advent. Advent is precursory only. When it comes to Advent wreaths, it’s all about the proper order of things, so eventually even the candle colors become aligned in the view I’m thinking of implementing.
This is interesting because there’s a substance to it that’s absolutely fascinating. Alright, so if you look at the photograph below, you’ll notice that the outer candles didn’t burn equally. That’s the result of the order assigned; the first candle stayed lit for more Sundays than the fourth candle. You’ve got this ascending effect to the 4 candle heights. That’s a good thing. Which brings us to the point:
What’s 12 O’clock on an Advent wreath, and where is it best to point my 12 O’clock?
I believe it’s best to point the Advent wreath’s 12 O’clock due East, for a number of reasons. This really comes in to play when you use the pink Shepherd’s candle because your 12 O’clock candle (1st Week of Advent) has to be opposite (6 O’clock) of the Shepherd’s candle, or it’s all going to be arbitrary.
The main question left to answer is what to do with the remaining — and different height — outer 4 candles. They all haven’t been used up and should be if I’m going to use the Advent wreath to become my Christmas wreath.
The plan is to use up the remaining Advent wreath candlestick wax on Christmas Eve.
That way, I’m left with a white Christ candle by itself, surrounded by a wreath that is lighted on Christmas Day. This same wreath melts away from Advent into a Christmastide wreath and I’m getting more display time and usage out of the wreath because it’s taken out of view the rest of the year.
For Lisa, I’d like to mention here that it’s a providential circumstance that the last tour concert for The Beatles was at Candlestick Park in 1966.
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I hope to hear from everyone during the live stream.
Merry Christmas to Michael Walker and everyone.
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Thanks, neighbor Tom Fones, and a M e r r y Christmas to you too.
It sure is great being a MLT Club member with you!
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OK, on Friday, Christmas Eve, I’ve committed to expend all 4 remaining Advent wreath candles before midnight. That’s just the ideal time for doing that. At a minute past midnight early Saturday morning, I light the Christ candle and set the timer. My Advent wreath just became my Christmas wreath.
Which raises the big question, how to run a continuously burning candle safely.
In my case, I can do that because I have an automatic constant updraft fireplace. I set the expended Advent wreath into the fireplace, throw the updraft door switch to the “on” position, light the white candle and put the glass screen over the front. Let’s see if I can get 288 hours out of the bees wax candle (calculations show that the 3″x9″ bees wax Christ candle will only get through Day 7 of Christmastide under ordinary conditions). I’ll have to remove some things, but the 12″ wreath fits fine, as you can see. Just walking around, can I see it easily through the glass? Yes. It looks great.
Once I can get a system going, and the ideal wreath procedure rote memorized, it slowly becomes second nature.
Based on how the candle burning test goes, I’ll adjust the wreath diameter and pillar candle dimensions (candle height and/or candle base diameter) next year in order to get the intended 288 hour continuous burn time for the center candle. You don’t know until you try. If I leave the fireplace area for any length of time and get to worrying about it, I also close the steel curtain to make sure.
Problem solved.
Christmas wreath, here we come!
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Michael – please share some pictures.
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Thanks, Mr. Fones and a Merrrrrrrrrry Christmas to you !!!
A few years ago I lucked up on a CD with most of Sissel’s tunes, and wow what a message it is in O Holy Night even in another language she sings it in, you know why Sissel selected that tune. The notes are spot-on, and the message is like no other. The CD had several of her Christmastime recordings from back in the 1980s and is the version I’ve settled on for the moment. A well-done vocal of that song by any artist is going to bring Christmas cheer.
One day, I think the MonaLisa Twins will record a duet of this song, O Holy Night.
Gosh, I would melt to hear the voice of Mona and Lisa sing O Holy Night. Here is an interesting video of a young Mona and Lisa playing a Merry Christmas tune that I ran across on their YouTube channel, and I also bought their Christmas CD. I am grateful to MLT for making the Christmas CD. It’s like the yearly Beatles Christmas albums. That’s what MLT reminds me of doing this stuff.
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You’ve got it. I’ll take some photographs of the candle lighting at midnight and how it all looks through the twelve days.
A lot of thought went into it, sure, but I’m getting more life. I get a six week display with the same ingredients that go into what we call an Advent wreath in the states. Plus, it’s got the right spirit. It changes you, yes, but you don’t lose anything either. It’s goodness added to what’s already there.
It reminds me of the 60s television ad “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony”. This does exactly that! Something akin to the old Coke Adds Life expression (remember that?) that’s instead being carried to the power of infinity with the Advent/Christmas wreath. The medieval elves of European lore were trying to picture the Incarnation. They did a great job.
I like candle wreaths anyway. To me, photographs are OK, but no match for actually performing your own candle lighting order of these Christmastime wreaths. It’s out of this world.
Have yourself a Merry, Merry, Christmas.
And three cheers for the two MonaLisa Twins!!
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