Going here is the best way to buy my wife's handmade, 60% beeswax advent candles. These are really beautiful, trust me. And since they contain more than 51% beeswax you can have them blessed by a priest.
The candle is a symbol of Christ. The wax of the candle symbolizes his body, the wick symbolizes his soul, the flame symbolizes his Divinity.
To take the analogy further, just as we believe (as all Christians do) that Christ's body was formed solely by the Virgin Mary, the wax is formed solely by female worker bees, i.e., "virgins" untouched by male bees. The medievals knew all this stuff, pretty amazing.
This is why, at least one reason why, a candle must be at least 51% beeswax to be blessed. Paraffin is a by-product of the oil refining process and an inferior material. But it's very difficult to get nice colors with 100% beeswax. A lot of people don't get their advent candles blessed, which is fine, but some people like to be able to get them blessed.
Okay, for us non-Catholics, what's the deal with the beeswax?
ReplyDeleteThe candle is a symbol of Christ. The wax of the candle symbolizes his body, the wick symbolizes his soul, the flame symbolizes his Divinity.
ReplyDeleteTo take the analogy further, just as we believe (as all Christians do) that Christ's body was formed solely by the Virgin Mary, the wax is formed solely by female worker bees, i.e., "virgins" untouched by male bees. The medievals knew all this stuff, pretty amazing.
This is why, at least one reason why, a candle must be at least 51% beeswax to be blessed. Paraffin is a by-product of the oil refining process and an inferior material. But it's very difficult to get nice colors with 100% beeswax. A lot of people don't get their advent candles blessed, which is fine, but some people like to be able to get them blessed.
So I guess the priest won't bless the heathen "battery operated tapers", which they helpfully advertise on the same page
ReplyDeletecall me cradle, but i've never heard of the whole "beeswax" thing. that's pretty wacky.