The legend of Serena and lacework.

Once upon a time, a poor widow with three children lived along the borders of the Reie. The oldest daughter, Serena, had to work too to earn money for the family. In former days they had a better standard of life and they did efforts to hide their poverty. Though, everyone knew they went through difficult times. Serena and Lacework.

From morning till evening, Serena sat bowed over the spinning wheel. But nevertheless, she earned far from enough. She was engaged to Herman, a young woodcarver. They would like to marry very much. But as long as the family lived in poverty, Serena had to work for her family. Every day, the girl went to the statue of Our Lady on the waterfront to decorate it with fresh flowers. One evening she lost all her courage and she promised she would do anything to help her family. She consented even of giving up her own luck.

One day, she sat in her small garden, when suddenly a web of delicate white threads fell upon her womb. All at once, she got the idea to imitate this pattern with the threads she had spun herself. On a cushion she started to tie the knots and to tie up with the help of pins. Herman fastened tiny pieces of wood to the threads, so that they didn’t get entangled up. The first lace cushion with spools of thread grew this way.

After many days of working, the lacework was ready. Serena hurried to the statue of Our Lady on the waterfront and she gave it at the Madonna with her daily small bouquet of flowers. The rich merchant’s women out of the town became soon acquainted with her work. They hurried to Serena’s house to admire the lacework. Quite a lot of people also wanted such a piece of lacework and they paid Serena very well for her work. But Serena stayed with her vow not to marry before her family was doing very well.

By means of this way the Madonna wanted to make clear that she needn’t keep her promise for a longer time to stay at home. Serena and Herman married shortly after and they lived further long and happily. She taught her daughters and granddaughters the art of lacework. Till today, we still have got a lot of lace-makers in our city of Bruges.