Students with exam stress offered free novena candles with half-naked patron saints

The student study period, widely referred to as the ‘Blok’ in Flanders, has begun. What better way to support someone during the exam period than by lighting a candle suggest several Christian organisations, the Christian workers movement Beweging.net, the Christian union’s youth section JONG ACV, the Christian health fund CM and the bank VDK. They are providing '9 days of heavenly assistance' during the exam period in the form of novena candles.

Novena candles are associated with the Christian novena.  This is a series of nine days during which people pray to God, often in preparation of a feast day.  The novena candles reinforce the prayer.

You can collect your candle from the St Peter's Abbey in Ghent after you have ordered one for free.

"It's a tongue-in-cheek action," explains Jan Reunes of Beweging.net, "because it features half-naked patron saints. On one side of the candle you’ll find Saint Aloysius, the patron saint of studying youths, and on the other side there’s Saint Rita of hopeless cases. But we also have a serious message."

Taboo to ask for help

"In this playful way we want to give students some support, but we also mention of the number of organisations you can contact when the going gets tough, like Tele-Onthaal and the Suicide Line 1813, CLB Chat. When we look at Flemish suicide figures, we see we are doing worse than the rest of Europe."

"It remains a taboo to ask for help and we want to break that. By the way, you can also contact the Suicide Line if you see somebody else struggling. They can then give tips on how best to offer help."

You can order the candles on the Hemelse Bijstand (Heavenly Assistance) website . "Anyone can apply for heavenly assistance; you don't need to know a Hail Mary" Jan says.