Christingle

A Christingle.
This is a really cool activity that we did in Jr Worship today. My favorite part was how proud Micah was of his. He carried it around for a very long time.

A Christingle is a symbolic object used in advent services in churches of many Christian denominations. It has its origins in the Moravian Church , with the first recorded use, in Germany, in 1747.
This is the story of the first Christingle:

One Christmas time back in 1747 at a town in Germany, Pastor John sat at home in front of his fire. He was thinking how he could explain the love of Jesus, and what Christmas really meant to the children in the church. He decided to prepare a simple symbol to help make the message of Christmas fresh and lively for them. Pastor John gave each child a lighted candle wrapped in a red ribbon, with a prayer that said “Lord Jesus, kindle a flame in these dear children‘s hearts”. This was the first ever Christingle service.
Many years later, in 1968, Christingle services were introduced to the Anglican Church in Britain by John Pensom of The Children’s Society, and the custom spread quickly; each year there are more and more Christingle services in England and Wales, although today‘s Christingles are a little different.
The Christingle consists of:

• an orange representing the world
• a red ribbon around it representing the blood of Jesus
• fruits and sweets skewered on 4 cocktail sticks which
are pushed into the orange representing the fruits of
the earth and the four seasons
• a lighted candle is pushed into the center of the orange
representing Jesus Christ, the light of the world