Sometimes there is a risk of jerking the thurible when stopping it at an unnatural point of the swing, and when the thurible is shaken like that, depending on its design, charcoals become dislodged, incense falls of the charcoal, it may brush against their vestments the wrong way (and too much of this causes the vestments to sometimes discolor), or worse yet, the coals may fall out on a carpet.
I was the "perpetual thurifer" for a while at our Cathedral liturgies, and when making turns I had to be conscious of when the swing would reverse. It is harder to do a 360
without being obnoxious with latin-style (those with longer-chains and especially difficult with a single chain) thuribles. I never did a 360...
It is easier to do it with the byzantine style thuribles, which are shorter and have 4 chains. Because these thuribles are often swung with the lid slightly open, I am sure that there is concern that when turning around the centrifugal force which holds the charcoal inside the thurible would not be interrupted - hence the necessity of the 360.
Of course, it
is impressive to see as well!
Now some day I'll tell the story of how I set off the new fire alarm system
during cathedral liturgiesafter our cathedral was restored.
Three separate liturgies. We found out the locations of the smoke detectors the hard way!
To keep me from being appointed thurifer the had to ordain me.
