On Cristingles, Rundles, Trendles: Advent observances, both obscure and useful

by Bruce Russell

This is an extended version of an article on Advent Wreaths written by Mr. Russell for the Advent 2005 issue of the Newsletter of the Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island Branch of the Prayer Book Society of Canada.

Many familiar observances of the Church year are of more recent origin than we might suspect. That does not necessarily imply that they are not constructive and worthy additions to our worship. Anyone looking for an Advent wreath blessing, for example, in The Canadian Book of Occasional Offices will be disappointed, although the blessing of the Christmas Crib is given. A search a little further a field, say in Percy Dearmer’s Parson’s Handbook , will also suspiciously draw a blank. This supposedly ancient observance seems unheard of by either of these authorities, both of whom one would assume would have loved to digress upon such a practice. That they fail to do so might well arouse one’s suspicions, as indeed it should. Dearmer does mention what were known as trendles or rowells. “A pretty medieval practice, which might well be revived as a good way of marking the season, was to hang a wooden hoop with candles on it in the midst of the chancel at Christmas...” (p. 144-145) Dearmer cites as his source on this topic J.T. Micklethwaite, whose Ornaments of the Rubric , published in 1897 and one of the pioneering classics of the Alcuin Club, where it is stated:

In churchwardens’ accounts we sometimes meet with an entry like ‘pd. for a Rope for the Rowyll’ ‘for a bolte and a swevyll to the trendyll’ or for wax for one or the other. The Rowell and the Trendle were I think the same thing. It seems to have belonged to Christmastide and to have been used in many places, but not to have had any special ceremony connected with it as the paschal candle had. It should perhaps be regarded more as a piece of decoration, such as the wreaths and banners which people put up now, than an ecclesiastical ornament. Each word means a wheel, and the thing itself seems to have been a hoop with candles fixed to it which was hung up in the chancel from Christmas to Candlemas, and was intended to represent the star of the Wise men.” (p. 44)

A Directory of Ceremonial, Part II , first published in 1930 as the Alcuin Club Tract XIX, while not mentioning Advent wreaths, does recommend the revival of the trendle at Christmas. “In commemoration of the star of Bethlehem, a hoop supporting a ring of candles may be hung up in the midst of the chancel or from the rood beam. The candles would be lighted at all sung services from Christmas Eve to the Epiphany inclusive. This ornament is called the trendle. It should be kept hanging till Candlemas, when it will be lighted for the last time.” [pp. 12-13]

It is also possible that Micklethwaite was mistaken and that the rowell or trendle were what we know as Advent wreaths, but I suspect he is probably right. I have checked various more recent Anglican liturgical manuals for mention of Advent wreaths also without success. Cyril E. Pocknee’s 1965 “revised and rewritten” 13 th edition of Dearmer’s classic, extensively recast in the spirit of its times, is equally silent on the subject. The Ven. Michael Perry’s A Handbook of Parish Worship , published by Mowbray in 1977, a work much influenced by liturgical modernism, also makes no mention of wreaths although Advent wreaths were widely used in North American Anglican churches and cathedrals well before their time. Archdeacon Perry does go on at some length about “Christingles.” These were apparently being promoted at that time by the Church of England Children’s Society. ”A Cristingle consists of an orange which symbolizes the globe, wound round with a piece of red ribbon (the blood of Christ) and speared with cocktail-sticks carrying pieces of dried fruit (the fruits of the earth). The whole is surmounted by a candle (the light of Christ…” Had the worthy Archdeacon been as familiar with Advent wreaths, as he was with Lessons and Carols, Cribs and Christmas trees etc. it is difficult to imagine that he would not have waxed similarly on pretty bows tied to purple and pink candles!

The earliest Anglican reference to Advent wreaths I have found is in a still useful collection of Advent daily meditations assembled by Norman W. Goodacre, then Chaplain of Queen Ethelburgha School in Harrogate. In the preface to Advent Candles, published by Mowbray in 1963, Goodacre describes and dates his first encounter with the custom. “Just before the war, a German Lutheran girl came to England to learn the language and take up nursing…. When Marie Charlotte [Lorey] stayed with us in 1937 she brought an Advent Star with four Advent candles. Lutherans light these four candles on the Sundays before Christmas. They symbolise the preparation for the festive season.” [p. 9]

Advent wreaths, like Christmas trees, are hardly ancient observances amongst English speaking peoples, both being transplanted, or perhaps one could say translated, in relatively recent times. It is well known that the Christmas tree was brought to England by the Prince Consort Albert in the early years of Victoria’s reign. Its independent use in North America could well have spread from German and Scandinavian immigrants to their neighbors somewhat earlier, but this is uncertain. The popularity of Advent wreaths can with certainty be traced to the post-war American liturgical movement drawing on both German Catholic and Lutheran influences. I remember as a child they were being promoted as a novelty by the publications of the Liturgical Press, the American mid-western Benedictine publishers of the journal Worship . How exactly the tradition emerged and spread is difficult to determine.

None of the various suggested origins of the Advent wreath withstand much scrutiny. In Sweden where Advent is marked in various ways it became the custom only in the 1920’s to light a candle each week in anticipation of Christmas, but it was only sometime later that round wooden or metal supports began to be made, The possibly related practice of the crown, similar in form to that worn by the Sisters of St. Brigit and to which are attached five candles, that is worn by the lussegubbar , the girl chosen to represent St. Lucy on Dec. 13 th, can only be traced back to the eighteenth century. Another common theory is that the practice has its origin among the Germanic tribes who lit wheels of fire at the winter solstice and that St. Boniface Christianized this practice inventing the Advent wreath in the eight century. I have yet to trace any reliable or very ancient source for this contention. My suspicion is the practice is actually Danish, as it is in Denmark where it has been most taken up in homes and is most rooted in national culture. I suspect that it was spread from Denmark through European Lutheran connections during the twentieth century, that it was adopted by German Catholics from their Lutheran neighbors, and then spread by the Liturgical movement to North America. Incidentally, the Danes use white candles with red ribbons, or sometimes red candles. The purple and pink candle option is an even more recent practice which I suspect was initiated by Church supply companies eager for another opportunity to sell unnecessary and overpriced items to gullible altar guilds.

Should we be suspicious of Advent wreaths as another other fad of the Liturgical Movement falsely marketed as a venerable and universal Christian antiquity? Good ideas should not be held responsible for all those who promote them, nor are they denigrated by false advertising. Every generation contributes to the development of liturgical tradition, and the liturgy of our times, even the conservative liturgy of our times, is deeply marked by innovations which are often invisible to our eyes. Those which are of lasting value survive, the others are forgotten. The Anglican Liturgical Movement grew from the Ritual Revival and was in many ways its legitimate child. Most conservative Anglo-Catholics parishes have adopted perhaps more that they realize from the Liturgical Movement; practices that are worthy additions to our worship such as offertory processions and a greater degree of lay involvement in worship, as readers and chalice administrators. Perhaps its most significant Christian spiritual development of the twentieth century was more frequent communion, championed among both Anglicans and Roman Catholics by the Liturgical Movement.

Advent wreaths serve as a fitting visual expression of a time of expectation, a growing presence of God’s light which matches the growing darkness around us, and the coming of, to use the words of the Nunc Dimittis , “light to lighten the Gentiles”. The blessing of the wreath on the First Sunday with the lighting of each successive candle can fit nicely into the Prayerbook Holy Communion between the weekly collect and that proper for the season. (There is a Blessing of Lights in The Canadian Book of Occasional Services, p. 54.) Each new candle can be lit during the reading of the latter, underscoring the words” cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light…” Perhaps a short reading from Isaiah might be interposed between these collects. I have done this in my Parish using these short passages from Isaiah between the Collects: 1 st Sunday 60:1-5; 2 nd Sunday 61:1-6; 3 rd Sunday 35; Ember Days 58:6-8; 4 th Sunday 7:14-17. These draw together the sense of the day’s Gospel lection with the theme of expectation, and in several instances, the theme of dawning light as well. This simple rite of collect, reading, collect can be said as a station at the Candle or read from the steps of the altar, with the candle of the day being lit from either one of the taperer’s flames or from the preceding Sunday’s candle, by either the celebrant, a server, or a child from the congregation.

Given the degree to which secular society ignores Advent, with a proliferation of Christmas ornaments appearing shortly after Halloween, I tend to think that it is preferable for the Advent wreath not to look like a Christmas wreath. The wreaths of dried grape vine which are available in crafts stores or from florists are especially suitable, reminding us of both the Israel vine motif of Psalm 80 and Christ’s own words in John 15. Dearmer’s suggested revival of the use of rosemary for its association with the Mother of God is attractive, especially if the parish has a metal wreath designed to be covered with boughs. The rosemary becomes brittle as it dries, but no more so than evergreens. The fragrance is pleasant and the silver-green needles are not reminiscent of the Christmas tree.

The extent to which this custom has spread suggests that candles and wreath can serve as a fitting sign of our expectation of the Incarnation of the Word made flesh among us. Our challenge is to find ways to integrate this observance within the spirit and form of Anglican traditional liturgy while avoiding the trite language and cliché typologies of so many of the innovative rites that are in circulation. Once again the Book of Common Prayer can found to be a ready instrument at the service of the continuing growth of the Church and its liturgy.