Holy Week 2010

Here are a few things we did during Holy Week. This year, we made our very first family Paschal candle. This is the candle that is lit at Easter and then used throughout the year at Masses for baptisms. We will light ours throughout the fifty days of Easter and then maybe light it on special occasions throughout the rest of the year.

So here's how we made it: I bought a white pillar candle and was wondering what i could use to decorate it, not having any prior experience with candle-making... cutting shapes out of beeswax sheets? Too complicated for this year. Then my mother in law (who was with me when I bought it) suggested painting it. Perfect! The acrylic paints I have worked great!

There are really good Paschal candle-making instructions here and here... and I forgot to look at them again to refresh my memory. Traditionally, it would appear that the four numerals for the year are placed in each of the four quadrants formed by the cross, but we didn't do that... the Paschal candle at our church just has the year at the bottom like I made it on our candle.

Then we stuck five cloves in for the incense, in the shape of the cross. I got a great tip on how to do this: get a large metal paper clip hot and then poke the end into the candle, repeating until the hole is deep and wide enough for the clove to be inserted. Of course, I got this info too late, so mine are just stuck into shallow holes with superglue, and already one has fallen out. Next year...

Here's Caroline with the finished candle.

Holy Thursday is sometimes called Green Thursday, so we had a green dinner: spinach and chive fettuccine from Trader Joe's with pesto, and grilled asparagus. Easy!

We also continued with our Lent calendar, and we pasted a picture of the crucifixion on the calendar for Good Friday. A Good Friday post is coming up next!