We just purchased a new chandelier for our dining room and there are no instructions for the internal wiring of the chandelier. It has five arms on the chandelier - each arm has two - same colred wires coming back to the center- my question- should these wires be linked in series or should I take one wire from each arm and wire to " hot" connection and one from each back to "cold " connection. The wiring from the chandelier to the box I understand its just the internal wiring thanks for any help !

I'll bet that the lamp is wired with ZIP cord, the same cord used on table lamps.

If it is and you look closely at the cable, it will have a ribbed and a non-ribbed side.

The non-ribbed sides whould be connected together and connected to HOT (Black).
All the ribbed sides should go to neutral (White).

The idea here is that the center pin of the lamps get connected to hot to reduce the shock hazzard.

Hi

These wires should be connected parallel and not in series. If the wires are connected in series the total resistance of the circuit would be too high and your light bulb will barely light up. Connect one wire from every arm to one point and the other wire to another point, so that you end up with two points where the mains can be connected. I have rewired many chandeliers dating from around 1900.
Hope this helps.