Give Your Advent Candles a Second Life
Your purple and pink tapers can be used again—to bring reflection and importance to other Church feasts and noteworthy days.
By Carol Ann Morrow taper announcing almost, but not quite Christmas. They’ve all done their duty, so to speak, but they won’t work well for an encore next Advent when the cycle is repeated. This past year, I reconsidered shelving the centerpiece of our Advent ritual and repurposing it well into the octave of Christmas and beyond. Why not? Popular culture is filled with suggestions for recycling, repurposing, and reusing. Four tapers shouldn’t be much of a challenge.
HURONPHOTO/ISTOCK
ur Advent wreath is always packed away prematurely. Its purple and pink palette clashes with the red and green signaling the Christmas season. The parish church may hold off until the 25th, but it’s hard at home with a decorated tree announcing that Christmas is much closer than those four lighted candles hint. When I pack up the wreath, I find myself with one stubby purple candle, one half done, one barely used, and one pink
34 • December 2021/January 2022 | StAnthonyMessenger.org
ISTOCK PHOTOS: LEFT: FAMVELD; MIDDLE: ABRIENDOMUNDO; RIGHT: KUVONA
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