Advent

5 untraditional tidbits about the Advent wreath and why I still make one As a teenager, I remember a Lutheran friend sharing an Advent wreath she had made at church. This surprised me, as I had known it to be a longstanding Catholic tradition. “Good for them,” I thought. Only some years later did I…

The history and meaning of the Paradeisl, a traditional Catholic precursor to the Advent Wreath. Yet again we’re lighting the dark days of Advent by a Paradeisl. A what? A Paradeisl, from the German word for “paradise,” calling to mind the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden and the need for redemption. The…