News

Tenebrae Hearse

31 March 2019

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Tenebrae is the Latin word for Darkness. It describes the night time prayers from the old Catholic Divine Office during Holy Week. There is a custom to light fifteen candles, then extinguish each one as each section of the prayers is finished.

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The candlestick holding fifteen candles is called the Tenebrae Hearse, the name "hearse" coming from the French for a harrow - for ploughing fields. The spikes for the candles resembled the spikes used to pull up weeds.

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Many years ago Peter was commissioned to make an Electric Tenebrae Hearse - or rather convert an existing hearse for candles into an electric one for use in the Great Hall at Sydney University which prohibited the use of naked flames. A group called Carnivale Christi was staging Dorothy Sayer's A Man Born to be King and had the idea of a tenebrae hearse in the centre back stage to mark off the progression of the story of the Passion.

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This new commission is to make a new tenebrae hearse, hopefully for use this year on Holy Wednesday.

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