<p>Undersökningen försöker få klarhet i hur mässhaken kom till Sverige och varifrån den kommer, men även en kortare historik om dess väg genom seklerna till nutiden. Symboliken i motiven på mässhakarna som tagits med från Kronobergs län tyds ikonografiskt och genom semiotik tyds även de tecken som finns med. Vidare jämförs en mässhake från den katolska tiden med en mässhake från den protestantiska tiden, men även om det finns några likheter mellan en modern katolsk mässhake och en mässhake från medeltiden.</p>

Undersökningen försöker få klarhet i hur mässhaken kom till Sverige och varifrån den kommer, men även en kortare historik om dess väg genom seklerna till nutiden. Symboliken i motiven på mässhakarna som tagits med från Kronobergs län tyds ikonografiskt och genom semiotik tyds även de tecken som finns med. Vidare jämförs en mässhake från den katolska tiden med en mässhake från den protestantiska tiden, men även om det finns några likheter mellan en modern katolsk mässhake och en mässhake från medeltiden.

The care of church textiles in Sweden has been regulated by church order for almost 500 years and later by Swedish law. There is a common perception of their value as carriers of culture and history. This paper aims to study the textile competence of the people responsible for inventories and textiles in the parishes, what they see as the biggest challenges in caring for the textiles, and how the employees value these textiles as objects of cultural heritage. A questionnaire sent to the people responsible for inventories in four different dioceses shows that many of the people responsible for the textile objects have little or no specific textile competence. Few of the people caring for the textile objects today have practical textile education, while junior employees have to rely on lectures organized by the church or the local museum. These courses have been organized infrequently and there is a pressing need to raise the textile competence of new employees. Many parishes have old textiles such as chasubles and antependiums from the 18th century and even older ones that are used rarely, some once a year at most. Most of these textile objects can be considered museum objects, that the churches merely keep in store. The framework and recommendations issued by the authorities the Swedish National Heritage Board (Riksantikvarieämbetet) and the county administration (länsstyrelserna) lack practical advice and the surveillance on how these recommendations are followed in the parishes is practically non-existent. The care for these old, fragile objects is challenging as many churches are kept cold due to rising energy prices. The parishes answering the questionnaire are, however, reluctant to leave the textile objects for storage at a local museum, as there is a sense of them belonging to the church. By current Swedish law, the textile objects are also supposed to stay in the church where they historically belong. In a near future, the challenge of cost, space and knowledge will create a pressure to find other solutions for the care of the cultural heritage of the Swedish church textiles.