YOW! Advent calendar – door number 4
4 December – St Barbara’s Day.
An old farmers’ saying goes: ‘If there are buds on St Barbara’s Day, there’ll be blossoms by Christmas.’
According to an old tradition, today – on St Barbara’s Day – people cut twigs from a fruit tree and place them in water indoors. These so-called ‘St Barbara’s twigs’ are then supposed to bloom by Christmas Eve, bringing a little light into the home during the cold and dark winter months.
We, too, have picked fresh twigs from an apple tree and a cherry tree and placed them in water, in the hope that they’ll bear white and pink blossoms in 20 days’ time. To make this wish come true, we’ve labelled the vase just to be on the safe side, so that everyone really does know what’s in it… See for yourselves:
- Create a folk saying in a graphics programme on the computer, plot it onto self-adhesive frosted-glass film using a cutting plotter, and weed the film.
- Cover with transfer film and position it on a vase.
- Press down firmly, peel off the transfer film, and clean the vase.
- Fill with water, arrange the twigs in the vase – and you’re done.
I’m curious to see if the branches will blossom this year; we’ll see…
