Colors of Light and Faith 🪟🌈✨Stained Glass Windows

We’ve been talking about colors 🎨—how people started with natural shades from the earth, plants, and stones and slowly expanded their palette. Can you believe there are over 16 million colors now? 🌈✨But in the past, every new pigment felt like discovering a treasure! Long ago, artists worked with a small palette of colors.Then, people found a way to turn even sunlight into art, creating glowing rainbows that lit up entire rooms. Today my story is about stained glass windows, one of the most beautiful ways people used color to transform the world around them. 🪟💖

Imagine stepping into a grand church almost 800 years ago and seeing gigantic windows that glowed like jewels, with sunlight streaming through them to fill the room with reds, blues, and greens. During the Middle Ages, churches were the center of life. People wanted these buildings to feel like heaven on Earth.How could they do that? By filling them with light and color! 🌞🎨

Artists, called glaziers, 👏 gla-ziers 👏 which means "to fit with glas", figured out how to mix melted sand, ashes, and powdered metals into hot furnaces to create bright, colorful glass. Imagine the glass bubbling and swirling like a magical potion! 🔥✨

Each color wasn’t just beautiful—it had a special meaning. Red symbolized love and courage ❤️, blue stood for heaven and purity 💙, green represented life and hope 🌿and gold was the light of God 🌟. When sunlight shone through the windows, it filled the room with glowing colors that felt otherworldly. People believed the light carried blessings and made the space holy. 🌞🌈✨

But stained glass windows weren’t just decoration—they were storybooks made of light! 📖 Back then, many people couldn’t read, so artists used pictures to teach important lessons. Imagine looking up and seeing Noah’s Ark floating on blue waves 🌊, or angels with golden wings flying across red skies. These windows brought stories to life in the most colorful way! 🌟

Making these windows was no small task. How did they make this magic? Let’s peek into the workshop of the glaziers, the artists who made stained glass. First, they melted sand, ashes, and powdered metals in a blazing furnace, turning it into bubbling, swirling molten glass. 🔥✨ Adding different metal powders created colors: cobalt for blue, gold for red, and even copper for green. It was like mixing potions to make rainbows! 🧪🌈 Then, they painted details on the glass with special paints and baked it to make the designs permanent. Next, they cut the glass into pieces, like a colorful puzzle 🧩, and joined them together with soft lead strips. When sunlight shone through, the windows glowed like magic. 🖼️✨🪟

Some of these masterpieces still exist today! In Chartres Cathedral in France, windows made in the 1200s still shine as brightly as they did over 800 years ago. 🪟🌟 From the outside, you might not even notice them, but when you step inside, it’s like entering a world of color and light. Imagine beams of sunlight transforming into glowing reds, blues, and greens that paint the walls and floor. It’s like walking into a rainbow! 🌈✨ . Photo 1. Photo 2. Photo 3

In England, the York Minster has a Great East Window so big and detailed that people call it the “Sistine Chapel of stained glass.” This window isn’t just large—it’s HUGE! 🏰📜 Imagine a window so tall and wide it could cover half a basketball court! 🏀😲 But it’s not just the size that makes it impressive—it’s like a giant glowing book, with each pane telling a story through dazzling colors and intricate designs. At first glance from the outside, you might think, “Oh, it’s just another window,” but step inside and—WOW!🌟✨ Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3

But stained glass isn’t just in churches. Imagine a concert hall where the ceiling itself glows like a giant, colorful sun! ☀️🌈 At the Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona, Spain 🎼🇪🇸 the centerpiece is a huge stained glass skylight that looks like a drop of sunlight bursting with color. And in the Sagrada Família Basilica again in Barcelona feels like stepping into a living rainbow. 🌈✨ Antoni Gaudí, the architect, designed the stained glass windows to capture and blend the sunlight into breathtaking patterns of reds, oranges, and blues. When you stand inside, the light feels like it’s dancing all around you, filling the space with warmth and magic. 🪟🌟

Walking into Santuário Dom Bosco in Brasília, Brazil 🕊️🇧🇷 feels like swimming in an ocean of light. 🌊💙. 🌌 Its stained glass windows are made of 12 shades of blue, turning the entire space into a glowing ocean of light.

There is a place with the nickname the “Pink Mosque”, this place is like a kaleidoscope come to life! 🌸🌈 In the mornings, sunlight streams through its colorful stained glass, covering the floors with rainbow patterns.

💭 I Wonder... 💭is there a place with stained glass window in our town? 🌈🪟🌟

Follow-Up Activities:

1. Make Your Own “Stained Glass”:

• Use colored tissue paper, glue, and plastic sheets or wax paper to create your own glowing art. Hang it in a window, and see how the sunlight makes your colors come alive! 🎨☀️✍️🖼️

2. Visit a Stained Glass Church or Cathedral

• Plan a trip to a local church or historic building with stained glass windows. Take time to look at the designs and how the light makes them glow. 🪟✨ Can you spot any shapes, animals, or symbols? Imagine what stories the artist wanted to tell! 🌟💭

With Montessori joy,

Vanina 😊