Everything made of wax and a few real nails

Year after year, sexton Maria Graf from Hofstarring makes a large Easter candle for the local candle.

Sometimes with special materials.

Hofstarring - decorating and decorating, that's what Maria Graf likes to do for her life.

Since 2004 she has been able to live out her passion as a sexton in the church of St. Florian in Hofstarring, in the place where she lives with her family.

Since then, the mother of four - and soon the grandmother of five - has put a large Easter candle in the chancel every year, which of course she has artistically decorated.

For this purpose, Graf first prepares a draft every year so that the arrangement on the candle fits.

The year always comes at the top.

The Greek letters Alpha and Omega must also be on the candle, they symbolize “beginning and end”.

And a cross must be on it, which Graf always designs in gold and red.

For this she has a whole basket full of wax sheets in different colors.

She is extremely sparing with the material, and of course she still uses all the wax residue, for example for leaves.

It takes about three hours before she holds the finished Easter candle in her hand, says Graf.

She has high demands on her own art and the ambition to always create something new, also with unusual materials.

For example, last year she crocheted a cord from wax threads and used it to depict a branch on the candle, adorned with green leaves.

This symbolizes that life will come from the candle again, she says.

Five nails are also part of the Easter candle, they stand for the nails with which Jesus was nailed to the cross and are also mostly made of wax.

Yours, however, not.

Graf has very special nails on her Easter candle: “They are at least 100 years old and still hand-forged.” Her husband pulled them from old wooden beams when the courtyard was being rebuilt.

This year she made tiny florets out of red wax scraps and little leaves in green.

She also likes to use the color orange, “that's me,” and this time she formed the cross with gold-plated structure wax sheets.

She can get the blank candle in the parish office when she returns the old candle there.

Actually, the new Easter candle should then be lit on Easter vigil, i.e. from Easter Saturday to Easter Sunday.

“But there is no Easter Vigil in Hofstarring,” she says.

For this, the Easter candle is blessed in advance by the pastor and then lit again and again during first communions, weddings, funerals or special celebrations during the year.

But Graf doesn't just make Easter candles for the church.

She is also responsible for the flower arrangements and the many ceilings on the altars, all of which she has embellished with elaborate handwork.

Because she also masters crocheting, lace making and knitting.

"For me, this is a good way to compensate for my stressful job," explains the tax clerk.

Graf has also made monastery work and attended a course in advance in the Seligenthal Cistercian Abbey in Landshut.

Birgit Lang