Advent

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This article is about the Christian season. For other meanings, see Advent (disambiguation)

Liturgical year
Western
Advent Christmastide Epiphany Lent Easter season Feast of the Ascension Pentecost Ordinary Time (Kingdomtide)
Eastern
Feast of Cross Nativity Fast Nativity Theophany Great Lent Pascha Pentecost Transfiguration Dormition Intercession

Advent (from the Latin Adventus, implicitly coupled with Redemptoris, "the coming of the Saviour") is a holy season of the Christian church, the period of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Christ, also known as the season of Christmas. It is the beginning of the Western Christian year and commences on Advent Sunday. (The Eastern churches begin the year on 1 September.)

Adventus is the Latin word for "coming", and is the exact Latin equivalent for the Greek word parousia, commonly used in reference to the Second Coming. Thus the season of Advent serves a dual reminder of the original waiting that was done by the Hebrews for the birth of their Messiah as well as the waiting that Christians today endure as they await the second coming of Jesus the Christ.

1 Tradition
2 Candles and calendars
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Tradition

The theme of readings and teachings during advent is often to prepare for the Second Coming while commemorating the First Coming of Christ at Christmas. With the view of directing the thoughts of Christians to the first coming of Jesus Christ as Saviour, and to his second coming as Judge, special lessons are prescribed for each of the four Sundays in Advent. Also, on the four Sundays of Advent, the Church encourages sermons on the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell.

[edit] Candles and calendars

Image:Kerstkransf.jpg

Advent wreath, with a candle for each week

Advent in the Christian sense refers to the four weeks before Christmas. The four Sundays of Advent are often traditionally celebrated with four candles with one to be lit each Sunday. Each candle has a specific meaning associated with different aspects of the Advent story. The first one almost always symbolizes expectant hope and is sometimes associated with prophecy. The others are organized around characters or themes as a way to unfold the story and direct attention to the celebrations and worship in the season, such as Peace, Love, Joy. The third (and sometimes fourth) is generally symbolic of Joy at the imminence of the coming of Christ. A fifth, white or gold, candle -- called a "Christ Candle" -- is often lit in the center on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day to signify Christ's birth.^[1]

The color scheme and order of symbolic associations for the candles is largely arbitrary but several traditions have adopted them for the meaning they carry. For Catholics and Protestants alike, the color of the first, second and fourth candles are purple (or blue), but the third is often rose-colored, to joyfully represent Gaudete Sunday with a less sombre liturgy. A few non-liturgical Christians, for whom different coloured candles are unavailable, use red candles for all four Sundays. A common way of marking the days of this advent, particularly among children who believe in Santa Claus, is an Advent Calendar. These can carry religious messages, seasonal pictures or little chocolate shapes. Another home-based craft made for advent is the Advent wreath that uses the candles described above as well as a circular wreath that symbolizes eternity.

[edit] Eastern Orthodox tradition

In Eastern Orthodox churches — where it is also called the Nativity Fast, Winter Lent, or the Christmas Lent — it lasts forty days, beginning on November 15 (for those churches using the Julian calendar this is equivalent to November 28), and in other churches from the Sunday nearest to St. Andrew's Day (30th of November) until Christmas. It is uncertain at what date the season began to be observed. A canon of a council at Saragossa in 380, forbidding the faithful to be absent from church during the three weeks from the 17th of December to the Epiphany, is thought to be an early reference to Advent. The first authoritative mention of it is in the Synod of Lerida (524), and since the sixth century, it has been recognized as the beginning of the Western ecclesiastical year.

[edit] Western Christian tradition

In Western Christianity, Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. The earliest Advent can begin is November 27 and the latest is December 3. Advent ends on December 24 before the Vigil of Christmas (the evening of December 24). If December 24, Christmas Eve, should fall on a Sunday (as in 2006), the Sunday obligation for Catholics to attend Mass still applies, and it is treated as the Fourth Sunday of Advent, and the Vigil of Christmas begins at Evening Prayer I later that day.

In the Roman Church the liturgical color of purple or violet is used in the liturgy. Often times the purple used is a darker purple (sometimes called "Royal Purple") whereas in Lent the color is often a reddish purple ("Roman Purple"). On the 3rd Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, the color rose is used since this Sunday takes on a more joyous tone. In some Anglican and Lutheran churches, blue is the liturgical color for Advent, a custom traced to the medieval Sarum Rite.

The "Late Advent Weekdays" or December 17-24, mark the singing of the Great Advent Antiphons. These are the antiphons for the Magnificat at Vespers (in the Catholic Church) and Evening Prayer (in the Anglican Church) each day, and mark the forthcoming birth of the Messiah. They form the basis for each verse of the popular Advent hymn, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel".

From the 8th century the season was kept as a period of fasting as strict as that of Lent (commencing in some localities on 11 November; this being the feast day of St. Martin, the fast became known as "St. Martin's Fast" or "St. Martin's Lent"), but in the Anglican and Lutheran churches this rule was relaxed, with the Roman Catholic Church doing likewise later, but still keeping Advent as a season of penitence. In addition to fasting, dancing and similar festivities were forbidden, and to the present day, in accordance with the symbolism of liturgical colours, purple vestments are worn at the church services, although in recent years blue has gained favour, an apparent revival of the Sarum Rite, which dates from medieval England (Sarum being the Latin name for Salisbury, where the custom of using blue vestments at this time of year originated). In the Eastern churches, red is used.

[edit] By country

In many countries, Advent was long marked by diverse popular observances, some of which still survive. Thus in England, especially in the northern counties, there was a custom (now extinct) for poor women to carry around the "Advent images", two dolls dressed to represent Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary. A halfpenny was expected from every one to whom these were exhibited, and bad luck was thought to menace the household not visited by the doll-bearers before Christmas Eve at the latest.

In Normandy, farmers employed children under twelve to run through the fields and orchards armed with torches, setting fire to bundles of straw, and thus it is believed driving out such vermin as are likely to damage the crops. In Italy, among other Advent celebrations, is the entry into Rome in the last days of Advent of the Calabrian pifferari, or bagpipe players, who play before the shrines of the Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Italian tradition being that the shepherds played these pipes when they came to the manger at Bethlehem to pay homage to the Messiah.