Chris-dingle

Or as most of us know it, Christingle. Yes, the above wonky orange with the half-nibbled dolly mixtures is our Christingle from yesterdays church service. Whilst I was aware of Christingle, going to the service is a pretty new one on me as I was brought up a Roman Catholic and we certainly didn't do the ritual of decorating oranges with sweets at my school, however my children are part of the Church of England and so we like to attend these special services with them and I really enjoy it too. Okay, it's the carol singing that I really enjoy - yesterday I was spoilt with O Come Emmanuel, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Silent Night, Away in a Manger, O Come All Ye Faithful and Once in Royal David's City. (It's the bacon sarnies that they dish out that Mr M really enjoys I think - they are pretty impressive).

So, of course like good Christians we all know what the Christingle represents don't we? But for those who are a little befuzzled over it here's a basic explanation.

The orange represents the world.
The candle represents Jesus - the light of the world
The red ribbon represents Jesus's blood
The cocktail sticks & sweets - the seasons and all good things in the world

I personally like to think that the sweets are there just to keep the kids quiet, and in fact last year they were diddled with only raisins on the cocktail sticks. I was pleased to note a return to tradition in 2009.

Christingle is a complete health and safety nightmare - imagine swarms of small children wafting lit candles around, which to be fair, are not very well secured in their little oranges - mine was wobbling all over the place and I have to say I was a little concerned for my own safety at one point. Last year all the little children gathered at the back of the church with their lit Christingles to sing Away in a Manger. It was quite an emotional moment made all the more so with the fear that at any moment my daughters hair was about to go up like a roman candle. Obviously I wasn't the only one who felt like that and this year we were asked to stay in our seats and do not move which was an altogether better plan. I joked that it wouldn't be long before real candles would be replaced with LED versions for health and safety reasons but having researched them quickly on the web, I think the last laugh will be on me as the perfect LED candle actually exists! We'll wait and see what Advent 2010 holds.....

Now all I need to know is when it is acceptable to chuck your Christingle in the bin? Last year I think I left it to fester a good while but it just feels a bit wrong lobbing something that is meant to represent Jesus into the trash.