Christingle

The Boy's and I went to our Church's Christingle service on Sunday which was great.

For us it one of the important traditions that we, as a family, enjoy.

This was a total new experience for me a few years back now as I hadn't done anything like this before but since then it has been something that we all enjoy.

For everyone who is unsure of what a christingle is I though I would share it here.

A Christingle consists of:

An Orange, which represents the earth.

A red ribbon around it representing the blood of Christ.

Dried fruits skewered on cocktail sticks pushed into the orange, representing the fruits of the earth and the four seasons. 

A lit candle pushed into the centre of the orange, representing Jesus Christ as the light of the world.

This is one of my favourite things leading up to Christmas and was one of the first years that the boys were both old enough to truly join in and understand the different parts. I think previous years they've joined in and just seen it as something they make at Church rather than the meaning behind it. 

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. Subsequently this is now the symbol for the Children's charity, the Children's Society. Such a great cause check out.

 

 

With the Christingle's made and then lit it was a great reflection of what each part meant.

 

 

We were lucky to have the church packed out and after the reflective time the children went up to the front and sung Away in a Manger around the Nativity scene.

 

Although it is great to know the reason behind the Christingle the message behind each part is important. I have always found that this time of year you are caught up in the rush of Christmas, pulled into the commercialisation of it all with the idea of what the best present and toy is. This service however strips all that away and shows the meaning behind why we have it. For me, most importantly, tell a story of children who didn't have that much at Christamas but continued to give rather than receiving.

 

The Boys and I, this Christmas day, will be lighting our Christingle and remembering amongst the hype why we're celebrating Christmas.