What is the significance of advent

Nowadays, however, more and more Protestant and Evangelical Christians are recognizing the spiritual significance of Advent, and have begun to revive the spirit of the season through serious reflection, joyful expectation, and through observing traditional Advent customs. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia , Advent began sometime after the 4th century as a time of fasting and preparation for Epiphany , rather than in anticipation of Christmas.

Epiphany celebrates the manifestation of Christ by remembering the visit of the wise men and, in some traditions, the Baptism of Jesus. Sermons focused on the wonder of the Lord's Incarnation or becoming a man. At this time new Christians were baptized and received into the faith, and so the early church instituted a day period of fasting and repentance.

Later, in the 6th century, St. Gregory the Great was the first to associate this season of Advent with the coming of Christ. Originally it was not the coming of the Christ-child that was anticipated, but the Second Coming of Christ. By the Middle Ages, four Sundays had become the standard length of the Advent season, with fasting and repentance during that time. The church also extended the meaning of Advent to include the coming of Christ through his birth in Bethlehem, his future coming at the end of time, and his presence among us through the promised Holy Spirit.

Modern-day Advent services include symbolic customs related to all three of these "advents" of Christ. Many different variations and interpretations of Advent customs exist today, depending on the denomination and the type of service being observed. The following symbols and customs provide an overview only and do not represent an exhaustive resource for all Christian traditions.

Some Christians choose to incorporate Advent activities into their family holiday traditions, even when their church does not formally recognize a season of Advent. They do this as a way of keeping Christ at the center of their Christmas celebrations. Family worship around the Advent wreath, Jesse Tree, or Nativity can make the Christmas season all the more meaningful. Some families may choose to not put up Christmas decorations until Christmas Eve as a way of focusing on the idea that Christmas is not yet here.

Different denominations utilize certain symbolism during the season as well. For instance, in the Catholic Church, priests wear purple vestments during the season just like they do during Lent, the other "preparatory" liturgical season , and stop saying the "Gloria" during Mass until Christmas. Lighting an Advent wreath is a custom that began with Lutherans and Catholics in 16th-century Germany. Typically, the Advent wreath is a circle of branches or garland with four or five candles arranged on the wreath.

During the season of Advent, one candle on the wreath is lit each Sunday as a part of the corporate Advent services. Many Christian families enjoy making their own Advent Wreath as part of celebrating the season at home as well. The traditional structure involves three purple or dark blue candles and one rose pink one, set in a wreath, and often with a single, larger white candle in the center.

One more candle is lit each week of Advent. The advent candles and their colors are packed with rich meaning. Each represents a specific aspect of the spiritual preparations for Christmas. The three main colors are purple, pink, and white. If you buy something from a Vox link, Vox Media may earn a commission.

See our ethics statement. Most Christmas customs in the US share two characteristics. And second, their roots almost always reach back to religious custom — Christmas being the second most important feast day behind Easter on the Christian calendar — but have since been adapted and, in some cases, scrubbed of religious content to make them more broadly palatable.

The celebration of Advent, whether with wreaths in church or calendars at home, is among these customs. Most Advent calendars start on December 1. But the actual first day of the Advent season changes every year. In , that day is November In , it will be November The final day is the same every year: December 24, Christmas Eve — though many calendars run through Christmas Day.

The reason for the shifting start date is somewhat straightforward. As celebrated by Christian churches in the Western tradition as opposed to Eastern Orthodox churches, which keep a different calendar , the season of Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and is celebrated on each successive Sunday leading up to Christmas.

There are always four Sundays during Advent prior to Christmas, but Christmas could be any day of the week — which means the distance between the fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas Day varies.

So the length of the season shifts from year to year: In , Christmas fell on a Sunday, which means the season stretched over a total of 28 days. Last year, it was 24 days long. Advent calendars, though, are more consistent. And Advent calendars are reused all the time. When I was growing up, the Advent calendar in our house had a picture of Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus in the manger, with little windows that we opened and read aloud — each contained a verse from the Christmas story.

Other people had Advent calendars that held a piece of chocolate to be eaten each day. Advent calendars in one form or another were adapted some time in the 19th century by German Lutherans as a way to mark the days of the season leading up to Christmas. By the early 20th century, calendars were being manufactured and published in Germany, aimed at delighting kids during the holidays. In , a full-color calendar was produced by the Third Reich for distribution to German mothers; it included, among other things, designs that incorporated swastikas and other Nazi symbols.

On one day, it has pictures that appear to tell the traditional Christmas story — Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus in the manger — but the text that accompanies the images is about a woodcutter, a soldier, and a king who get lost in the woods and encounter a woman with a baby who has wise words for them. Following the war, with cardboard no longer rationed, Christian-themed Advent calendars made their way stateside thanks to the boom in production and the GIs who sent them home to their families.

They got a boost in popularity when Newsweek published a photograph of President Dwight D. Advent calendars have remained popular in the years since, often marketed with the suggestion that they help children count down the days to Christmas, presumably to keep them from bugging their parents every day about how many days are left until they can open presents.

Sometimes pockets in the calendar can be filled by parents with toys or treats, small gifts to satiate the excited child. One can detect some commonality between this and traditions around gift giving during Hanukkah. As such, Advent calendars aimed at children abound. It was thought to be very unlucky if you haven't seen a box before Christmas Eve! People paid the box carriers a halfpenny to see the box. There are some Christmas Carols that are really Advent Carols!

There are several ways that Advent is counted down but the most common is by a calendar or candle s. There are many types of calendars used in different countries. A window is opened on every day in December and a Christmas picture is displayed underneath. In the 19th Century, German protestant Christians counted down to Christmas by marking 24 chalk lines on a door and rubbing one off every day in December. Paper calendars were first popular in Germany in the early s, although people made their own ones from the s.

There's a debate about exactly where and when the first mass produced calendar was printed but it was in the first decade of the s. The most famous and popular early maker of printed Advent calendars was a German printer called Gerhard Lang. His first calendars consisted of two sheets, a 'back' piece of card with the numbers 1 to 24 printed on it and a separate sheet of pictures which you could cut out and stick onto the numbers each day.

The first calendars with 'doors' were made in Germany in the s. When they were first made, scenes from the Christmas Story and other Christmas images were used, such as snowmen and robins, but now many calendars are made in the themes of toys, television programmes and sports clubs. The first record of an Advent calendar, in the UK, was in The first calendar with chocolate in it was made in ; and in the UK Cadbury's made their first chocolate calendar in However, they didn't sell very many to start with.

Chocolate calendars really only became popular in the s. Some European countries such as Germany use a wreath of fir with 24 bags or boxes hanging from it. In each box or bag there is a little present for each day. There are also now all different types of Advent Calendars used to sell and promote different products including chocolate, perfumes, alcohol and beauty products.