Catholic Activity: Advent Wreath IV

The symbolism of the Advent wreath is explained in this section from an article on religious customs of Germany.

DIRECTIONS

In many homes one will find the "Advent wreath," a wreath made from pine branches, hung up horizontally in the living room, adorned with four candles--one for each week--and with purple bands descending from the wreath. The round form of the wreath speaks of the Church's holy cycle; its greens, of the divine freshness that comes to us by living with the Church's feasts and fasts; the four candles, of the four weeks of Advent; their light, of Christ the Light who is also our Light, and the purple bands, of the numerous blessings which descend into our hearts during these "way-preparing days" for the coming of the Lord.

Activity Source: Your Home, A Church in Miniature by Compiled by The Family Life Bureau in the early 1950s, The Neumann Press, Long Prairie, Minnesota, 1994