Wax stick
A wax stick is a very thin special shape of the candle that is hardly in use today . It was sold by the meter as a wreath or something like that and was used on special wax stick holders . Since it due to the very unbalanced wick - wax easily -Verhältnisses rußte , it made sense, always a Snuffers to have on hand.
Until the 19th century the term was generally used as a synonym for candle ; In Latin the wax stick is called cereostata , from which the term candle , which is common today , has developed.
In some places of pilgrimage there is still a wide range of such string-shaped candles as artfully designed devotional items , e.g. B. decorated with a wax modeled and painted portrait of the local saint . They serve less for use than as a pilgrimage memory and display object for the local Herrgottswinkel .
Especially in Catholic dominated south German and Austrian area there used to be the custom of Candlemas ( February 2 to give wax sticks) of bride, daughters and female maids. Since there was no electric light at that time, these light measuring wax sticks were taken to the church for morning and evening prayers and lit there so that they could read the hymnbook .
In addition to wax , paraffin or a mixture of wax, tallow , spruce resin and turpentine are used as the starting material for wax sticks .
similarities
There are similarities to Newweling , which is used in Mainz on All Saints 'Day and All Souls' Day, and the Jewish Hawdala candles.
literature
- Adelung, Grammatical-Critical Dictionary of High German Dialect, Volume 4. Leipzig 1801, p. 1326.
- Meyer's Large Conversation Lexicon. 6th edition 1905–1909, p. 285 or under candles, p. 859.
- Ursula Pfistermeister: wax folk art and custom - a book for collectors and lovers of old things. Volume 1, Verlag Hans Carl, Nuremberg 1982, ISBN 3-418-00468-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ursula Pfistermeister; P. 95 and p. 98.