Product Information - Candle Arch - Carolers
Candle Arch (Schwibbogen) by Müller Kleinkunst Seiffen/Germany with many interesting details and beautiful natural colors. The arch is illuminated by regular candles. Please check out our supports for displaying your Candle arch (Categorie: Candle arches/Accessories).
This Candle Arch is decorated with Caroler:
Paying a visit to Seiffen on an Advent Sunday, one can see the carolers with their lanterns and bright stars walking from house to house. They wish the residents a merry Christmas.The German word Kurrende (carolers) goes back to the Latin currere (walk). Kurrende, originally, used to be a walking boy choir. The choirs were looked after by the church, boys of 10 to 14 years old being the members. Today, girls can also be members. Since 1535 when the Seiffen region became Protestant, their typical dress has been a simple cape and a round hat. In the middle of the 1930s, the Seiffen toy-maker Max Schanz created a group of figurines which is supposed to be the origin of the wooden carolers. It has served many other Erzgebirge craftsmen as a pattern. It consists of four carolers with books in their hands, one child carrying a star, two carved little trees and three houses of very thin wood with saddle roofs, one of them showing ridge turrets to indicate a village church. Nowadays, the ensemble mostly includes the well-known Seiffen church. This is complemented by two lanterns which can be found everywhere in the centre of Seiffen. Their glass bodies show colourful pictures telling about the most pleasant time in the Village of Toy-Making: Christmas.
General Inforamtion in Candle Arches / Schwibbogen:
For more than 250 years, the candle arch has been an integral part of the Erzgebirge Feast of Light, which is celebrated at Christmas. It is said that blacksmith Johann Teller from Johanngeorgenstadt forged the first candlestick of this type in 1726.
The phrase candle arch reminds of architectural origin: In Gothic times, an arch connecting two walls and supported by them was known as Schwebebogen (floating arch). Its particular shape, however, goes back to a tradition developed by the miners in the Erzgebirge. On Christmas Eve, they came together to celebrate their ”Mettenschicht”, also known as ”Zechenheiligabend”. No work was done at this event, but a service was held. The miners brought their burning lamps and hung them up on a wall so as to form a half-circle, thus describing the shape of the entry to a tunnel.
Today, many show-mines in the Erzgebirge invite guests to their ”Mettenschicht” on Christmas Eve. Still today, travelling in the towns and villages of the Erzgebirge, one will see the festive shine of the candle arches in public places or in many windows. We feel sure you, too, will find your candle arch, choosing from the wide range available: whether decorated with figurines, or illuminated inside, or in the traditional arch shape, or tapered, or pointed.
