Genesis of an Advent Wreath

In the past few years, the Advent wreaths in our parish have taken many varied and imaginative forms. Some were rather good actually, but others, unfortunately not so. Our previous one needed lots of tending as the gelatinous material in the transparent glass tubes tended to dry out. Yes, gelatinous material in transparent glass tubes. Sometimes, our ideas are so bright it makes the sun blink.

But one of the tubes broke, apparently, so this year, I thought something more traditional was in order. So the gang came together, found a sponsor to donate the labour and material costs and based on a novella written by yours truly, got Mark's brother Evan, who's studying design to design it. Evan has kindly designed something else for us as well, but you'll have to wait to Saturday to see it.

Mind you, as is the usual practice in our parish, everything was rushed through in a week or so from design to getting the final product out on the sanctuary.

The design

The resulting design was an adaptation, but still based on the above mentioned novella. Unfortunately, the adapted design overlooked a few details but with some minor alterations and additions, we were back in business. When put together though, it looks a little cramped. But I have some ideas to fix it once the season is over and come Advent next year, look out for a better and meaner Advent wreath!

The crew gathered together to assemble the thing on Saturday afternoon. The night before, Mark's mum kindly donated the green wreath and red flowers while Angela put it all together with the gold bells. To my shock and surprise, everything was completed 8 whole hours before the Blessing! Wow! (Remember, I was still slashing Paschal Candle to fit it in the holder 3 hours before the Vigil was to start, so 8 whole hours is huge!)

Our wreath was blessed by Fr. Mark using the formula in the Book of Blessings on the anticipated Mass of the First Sunday of Advent.

I think we should take out the Christmas candle until Christmas because it cramps it up even more that way. What do you think?

Anyway, great job and many thanks to all involved, especially Mdm. Donor, Mr. Carpenter, Mark and Evan, Angela and Mark's mum.

Here's Mark's take on the whole thing.