Bedroom Altar - Interesting Custom

[EnchantedEve]

Well I’m Filipino and growing up I remember my parents and family members always set up altars in their living rooms or bedrooms. On these makeshift altars they would place devotional candles, crucifixes, El Santo Nino, rosaries, and just regular sacramentals and religious articles. From research, I discovered that this practice originated from the Spanish and how they encouraged the Filipino Indios to create altars and bring the Church home. As a teen, I too have an altar in my bedroom, one that rivals the one in the living room . In Filipino communities, the living room altar identifies a Catholic Filipino household.

Do any other cultures or individuals create altars in the home or bedroom?

Yes, we have one in the bedroom and another in the Dining Room. The Dining Room one actually has a small tabernacle with relics in it, has been arranged according to the 1917 rubrics, faces east, and was blessed by a priest! My sister even used it for her betrothal ceremony! In the her photos, people thought she was betrothed in a small chapel.

 

[lesliejean]

I would love to set up an altar at home. Right now, my artifacts are scattered in different places in my apartment, but it is my intention to gather them together and create a sacred place for prayer.
Leslie †

 

[cloudcar]

In Japan it is common to have altars called butsudan. My husbands parents have a large one in a sitting room. In the morning my mother in law would open the doors and tap a ringing bowl with a little chubby stick. Inside was a bowl with sand in which to stand up a stick of incense, pictures of deceased relatives and their special name plaques the family gets at their funeral. She would put sweets in the altar as well. Another small butsudan in her bedroom has some pictures and a wooden buddha figure.
Here in the US I see altars in businesses owned by people from southeast Asia.

 

[crystal_waters]

Well I’m Filipino and growing up I remember my parents and family members always set up altars in their living rooms or bedrooms. On these makeshift altars they would place devotional candles, crucifixes, El Santo Nino, rosaries, and just regular sacramentals and religious articles. From research, I discovered that this practice originated from the Spanish and how they encouraged the Filipino Indios to create altars and bring the Church home. As a teen, I too have an altar in my bedroom, one that rivals the one in the living room . In Filipino communities, the living room altar identifies a Catholic Filipino household.

Do any other cultures or individuals create altars in the home or bedroom?

i have angel, saint, jesus and mary statues in my bedrm plus crucifix, rosaries etc…

uhmmm about other religions…i think hindus and buddhists have altars in their homes

 

[callmeChris]

I’m Hispanic, and though I wouldn’t call mine an altar, I have a small prayer table in my bedroom. It is made of three glass slabs each connected to each other, two on the side and one on the top of course. I have on my table a Statue of Our Lady, and on top of that on my wall I have a crucifix, and just above that I have hanged a Picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. On my little table I have a Prayerbook, a bible, A St. Joseph continuous missal, and a tiny booklet full of prayers to the sacred heart.

Now with all that being said, I really don’t know if all Catholic Latinos have altars in their houses. I think some do. I naturally assume since most of the world’s Latinos are Catholic, and they share an awesome pious devotion to the faith.

 

[Lifeisawesome]

Dear Friend,

I am an American convert to Catholicism. We have an altar in our entry/dining room and I have one in my office with a kneeler. This practice should be common among all Catholics in their homes. It is the setting aside of sacred and obvious space dedicated to prayer and worship…

 

[jdc209]

In Japan it is common to have altars called butsudan. My husbands parents have a large one in a sitting room. In the morning my mother in law would open the doors and tap a ringing bowl with a little chubby stick. Inside was a bowl with sand in which to stand up a stick of incense, pictures of deceased relatives and their special name plaques the family gets at their funeral. She would put sweets in the altar as well. Another small butsudan in her bedroom has some pictures and a wooden buddha figure.
Here in the US I see altars in businesses owned by people from southeast Asia.

Hmm… I’m not sure if this kind of altar is the same type Catholic cultures tend to create. What you described seems more like ancestor worship. The altars I’ve seen normally only have saints, crucifixes, devotional candles, statuary etc. Items that reflect God, not deceased ancestors.

 

[sulkow82]

I am really wanting to create a home altar in my living room room or bedroom but I do not currently have but one table that would work and that table is what my cat routinely uses to look out the window. So, I need to find an inexpensive table that would work for a home altar.

The way I got mine was by converting a t.v. stand I had not really doing anything important. It turned out to be the exact correct height for me kneeling as I wanted to.

To contribute some ideas for tables, here is a tour of my prayer table:

http://forums.catholic-questions.org/album.php?albumid=1027&pictureid=7088

The white card to the left is my mom’s “prayer card.” These were printed up at the mortuary when she passed on. This is to show her continued worship of Christ with me, but she is not the center of worship. Christ is.

The white book in the center is a pocket New Testament I received when joining the SFO. The books to the sides are for prayer intentions and recording other deceased relatives. In the front is where I burn incense. Below is where I keep my prayer books and the drawers are for supplies. I also make chord rosaries. Now, when I do that it is before the Lord in my home.